Adrian Steirn is a photographer and filmmaker. He is the founder of Ginkgo Agency, which specialises in creating strategic high quality short form content. Steirn is also the creator of Beautiful Newsand 21 Icons
Steirn's films and photographs have been used as the basis for campaigns aimed at raising awareness and creating change for WWF and The Global Fund. Steirn is the creator of two major multimedia formats, 21 Icons and Beautiful News. 21 Icons piloted in South Africa over the course of three seasons that told the stories of South Africans who have continued Nelson Mandela's legacy. Beautiful News is an extension of the echos behind 21 Icons, releasing one story every day about ordinary people whose lives are worthy of celebration. Steirn is represented in South Africa by the gallery in Johannesburg.
Photography and filmmaking
Steirn uses his work to tell the stories of his subjects. South African artist William Kentridge has appreciated Steirn's ability as a portrait photographer for his "technical mastery" and "perfectionism".
Beautiful News
In November 2016, Steirn launched Beautiful News, a multimedia storytelling format. Launched in South Africa, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, Beautiful News releases one positive story every day through News24, the country's largest digital news platform. The project uses photography and filmmaking to share the stories of ordinary people whose passion, dedication and commitment inspires, helps or otherwise influences those around them in a positive way.
21 Icons
Steirn is the creator of 21 Icons, a multimedia celebration of remarkable individuals who have changed our world for the better. Inspired by Nelson Mandela, 21 Icons was launched in South Africa and received global attention. Season I of 21 Icons South Africa featured Nelson Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, Ahmed Kathrada and Sophia Willams De Bruyn, among others. Steirn's portrait of Nelson Mandela, Madiba's last official photographic portrait, appeared in over 28 000 newspapers worldwide and was sold for ZAR 2 million, setting a record for the highest priced photograph in South Africa. All proceeds were donated equally to WWF South Africa and the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital.
Conservation
Steirn's interest in conservation has been a major focus throughout his career. As the photographer-in-residence for WWF South Africa, Steirn works actively to promote and engage with conservation efforts, using visual images as a means to stimulate discussion and action around key issues. Collaborations with WWF to date include:
#SOSVirunga, a global campaign to protect Virunga National Park from the threat of drilling by oil companies
Lily Cole’s Amazon Adventure, a documentary for Sky Television on the threat of deforestation and its impact on climate change, charting the drive locally to encourage local people to adopt rubber-tapping instead of logging as a form of sustainable employment
“Searching for Tiger”, which highlighted the threats to Nepal's tiger population as part of a major WWF initiative
Ongoing, Steirn seeks to document the rhino-poaching situation in Southern Africa, working with a number of conservation organisations to bring global attention to the crisis. His film documenting the story of Thandi, a rhino that survived an horrific poaching attack to later give birth to a healthy calf, achieved worldwide distribution, while photo essays on Hope a second female who is being rehabilitated by specialist vets after a similar attack have achieved huge impact on social media. His photo essay, 'A Complicated War' which shared Steirn's personal reflections on the impact the crisis was having on the communities affected by poaching, won the Professional Social Cause category at the 2015 International Photographic Awards. Steirn recently released The Pangolin Men series in collaboration with the Tikki Hywood Trust in Zimbabwe. The series aimed to draw attention to the plight of pangolins, an often overlooked species despite being the world's most trafficked mammal. In December 2016 Steirn released The World’s Most Wanted Leopard, a documentary that charted his journey to Azerbaijan in a quest to capture photographic evidence of the critically endangered Caucasian leopard, world's largest sub-species of leopard. The documentary will air globally as part of Nat Geo WILD's Mission Critical strand, which features powerful stories of the most incredible and most endangered animals on our planet. Steirn's speaking engagements have included the inaugural Caucasus Cat Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia and the World Leader’s Conservation Forum in Jeju, South Korea.
