Klaus Thymann

Meet Klaus Thymann

Klaus Thymann is a Danish explorer, scientist, fellow at The Explorers Club, fellow at the Royal Geographical Society, multi award-winning photographer, filmmaker and creative director. He has developed an original viewpoint utilising a cross-disciplinary skillset that combines journalism, image making, mapping, documentary and exploration with a focus on contemporary issues and the climate emergency. Thymann has been featured by New Scientist, National Geographic, BBC, Wired and more. He is on the Expert Roster at UNESCO – UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Working as a documentary filmmaker and journalist his work has reached audiences of tens-of-millions through features and commissions in media outlets including the BBC, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, and Vice, among others. Through creative directing, Thymann has delivered original content and installations across multiple platforms for institutions and NGOs, as well as brands like Nike, Sony, Björn Borg, Arc’teryx and Red Bull.

He is an experienced mountaineer, frequently summiting oxygen deprived peeks, as well as a technical diver capable of navigating in deep waters, below ice, and cave diving. Over the past two decades he has worked in conflict zones and led more than 50 expeditions to extreme environments across six continents and into four of the planet’s oceans.

Conducting field work supported by his environmental science degree, Thymann has made discoveries including finding corals in Danish waters, pre-historic bones deep inside a submerged Mexican cave system, and an unexplored manatee habitat in the Yucatan. He has uncovered equatorial glaciers by trekking a new route into Congo DRC and reported unnamed glaciers in Nepal.

Through leading teams and working collaboratively, Thymann has engaged in partnerships with institutions including NASA, the United Nations, World Glacier Monitoring Service and Danish Technical University – conceiving new methodologies and creating inventions along the way.

Thymann’s passion for the environment and arts led him to undertake pro bono work and serve on the board of organizations including The Design and Artists Copyright Society, UNICEF, Extinction Rebellion and Red Cross. His charitable work has been supported by the Queen of Denmark, Arts Council England, the Danish Arts Foundation and the Swiss Environmental Ministry.

In 2008 he combined his diverse talents to establish the charity Project Pressure – Visualizing the Climate Crisis. The charity uses art as a positive touch-point to inspire action and behavioral change. Through Project Pressure he collaborates with world-renowned artists to create and exhibit provocative work that inspires climate action.

Project Pressure’s influential project Voices for the Future at the United Nations 2019 Climate Action Summit installed large-scale projections covering the exterior of the landmark building with images of an iceberg melting paired with words and voices from six young advocates, including Greta Thunberg. The words were collected and arranged by Thymann through interviews and correspondence.

At age fourteen Thymann got his start by photographing tourists in Copenhagen for the Canal Tour and began working for publications as a writer and photographer during his teenage years. In 1996 he was the youngest ever winner of the Scandinavian Kodak Gold Award and in 2013 he won the Sony World Photography Award. He is a Hasselblad Ambassador and his artwork is in permanent collections incl. MoMA (SF) and has been exhibited at Design Museum Denmark, Horniman Museum London, Institute of Contemporary Art London, Natural History Museum Vienna, Museum of Climate Change Hong Kong, and Museum of Modern Art Stockholm.

Thymann has guest lectured at Oxford University, The Photographers’ Gallery, Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design, Hong Kong University, Rome University, Cancun University, University of the Arts London, Natural History Museum Vienna.