|Andrew Stevenson - Biography|
Although his family have been in Bermuda for over thirty years, Andrew was born in Canada, and then spent his childhood in Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Scotland, Malaysia and Singapore. He studied postgraduate international economics in France, Canada and Norway and worked as an international economist for two Canadian banks before joining the United Nations Development Programme. He was assigned to the UNDP offices in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, remained in the country after a two year stint with the UN, obtained his pilot's licence and started a safari company in the Selous Game Reserve. After five years in East Africa he returned to North America to become a financial advisor, and to upgrade his pilot's licence. He has subsequently worked as a consultant in international development for the Canadian, Norwegian and Swedish governments, travelling over most of Africa and Asia. He was owner of two adventure companies in Norway. He currently lives in Bermuda with his Kiwi wife Annabel and daughters Elsa and Somers where he writes and researches whales full time.
He is well known in Bermuda for his Family Man articles in the RG Magazine.
Andrew's photographs and articles have featured on the front covers in international magazines including: Royal Geographical Society Magazine, The Great Outdoors (TGO), Global Adventure, The Globalist, Action Asia, Destinations, RG, Bottom Line Magazine, Outside Australia, British Airways in-flight magazine High Life and Singapore Airlines in-flight magazine Silver Kris.
He has completed a novel set in Namibia, South West Africa. Skeleton Coast: The Forbidden Zone has been translated into Japanese and published in Japan.
Andrew's first documentary film Paving Shangri La, about the military highway the Chinese are building through the Annapurna Himals, was awarded an Honorary Mention at its first showing, the Bermuda International Film Festival. Paving Shangri La was runner up in the Environment category at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, a finalist at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival, and other numerous film festivals throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Australasia. Paving Shangri La went on world tours with three film festivals where it was shown on average every other day.
Where the Whales Sing, a 60-minute documentary, is the culmination of The Humpback Whale Film & Research Project. This film was first shown at the Bermuda International Film Festival in March 2010. At its second film festival, the BLUE Ocean Film Festival in Monterey, California "Where the Whales Sing" was one of over 400 entries and one of 19 award winners. The film won "Best Emerging Underwater Filmmaker". Subsequent to that award "Where the Whales Sing" has won awards at numerous film festivals around the world.
In 2011, Andrew completed an illustrated book of 36,000 words and 300 photographs based on the Humpback Whale Film and Research Project. Whale Song: Journeys into the Secret Lives of the North Atlantic Humpbacks is published by Constable and Robinson in London with co-publishers Globe Pequot Lyons Press in North America. "Whale Song" came out in October 2011, and can be pre-ordered here.
|Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 May 2012 21:28 )|