Kirsten Hines is a writer, photographer, and environmental educator who started out as a wildlife biologist, but found herself being drawn toward storytelling with images and words versus collecting data so made a big pivot in that direction.
Kirsten grew up in the Philippines but has been based in Miami since 1998 when she moved to south Florida to get her Masters in biology. After finishing grad school she traveled around New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, China and the Bahamas. Right before she left on that adventure her fellow students gave her her first camera and that’s when she started seeing the world from a different perspective.
Her bio says she has “been stashed under thorny bushes by Maasai in Kenya, had her lunch stolen by monkeys in the forests of Borneo, battled crocodiles in Australia, faced down a bowl of boiled frogs in China, and checked off her last continent with penguins in the Antarctic.”
Kirsten’s photographs and writings have appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications, including eight books — the latest of which is “Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey.” It’s like a conversational field guide that explores Florida’s animal diversity, and its blending of creatures from the tropics with those from North America.
Kirsten joined us on Gulf Coast Life in November of 2023 to discuss her work as a photographer and her new book.
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