About/Publications — ROBERT NEWLIN

About me.

I have been watching birds since I was about 6 years old--usually on the side of school or work, occasionally as work--and have been photographing them for the past decade or so. I recently retired from teaching medieval and classical literature at universities in both my native USA and abroad--especially and for many years at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea. I studied English Literature (BA) at Wesleyan University and Comparative Literature (PhD) at Rutgers University. Much of my work has focused on early European texts about natural history and animals, including beast fable and beast epic, bird debates and early biology.

Select (Ornithology-related) Publications

My book Korea through her Birds: Windows into a World was published by Seoul Selection (Seoul and Riverside, Ca) in 2013. Within the United States, the book is distributed as part of The University of Hawaii Press catalogue. Seoul Selection recently issued an e-book version as well.

The original catalyst for writing Korea through her Birds was environmental and activist. The reasoning was simple. Korea has beautiful habitats and birds. Not enough people--even within the country--know about these places and birds. Habitat destruction threatens urgently. One way to help: show the birds, write about them, connect their stories to us and to our stories. A sense of connection breeds solicitude and, hopefully, positive change. Thus the book.

Photo contributions to various publications:

Owls: A Guide to Every Species by Marianne Taylor
Tous les Oiseaux d'Europe by Frédéric Jiguet and Aurélien Audevard
Tous les Oiseaux Rares d'Europe by Frédéric Jiguet and Aurélien Audevard
Shorebirds of the Northern Hemisphere by Richard Chandler
Birding Magazine: American Birding Association
British Birds
Handbook of the Birds of the Western Palearctic. Multiple volumes.
I have also consulted--with varying degrees of informality--on a number of books and publications about East Asian birds and environment, including magazine and newspaper articles within Korea, papers and booklets by the wonderful organization Birds Korea, and Mark Brazil's Birds of East Asia.

Birds sometimes feature in the various articles I've published in literature journals--falconry in Chaucer, for instance, or the crow in religious poetry--and most of my writing of that sort has been about animals: wolves, whales, foxes and more.

I'm particularly happy about various photos that have been used for the following conservation initiatives.

Hong Kong Bird Watching Society and the China Conservation Fund: a picture of a Baer's Pochard (a critically endangered duck) for a habitat preservation project.

Goseong County, South Korea: photos for an exhibition raising awareness on coastal and marine conservation issues.

East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership: The Year of the Great Knot. Shorebird photographs.

Gwangju News Magazine and Gwangju International Center-: talk, slide show, magazine article on birds and habitat.

Royal Asiatic Society: talk, slide show on birds and habitat.

Birds Korea. In my opinion, the most effective organization in Korea working toward the better understanding of birds and habitat preservation in Korea and surrounding countries. A wide variety of photographs, used for various publications, exhibits, web pages and other.

Baer's Pochard--a critically endangered species--near Guri, South Korea.

Equipment. The photographs on this site were taken with Canon cameras and lenses: 1D Mark III and IV and now 1DX ii cameras; 600mm f4 (often with 1.4 teleconverter) and sometimes 135 f2 lenses; and, for wide-angle, the 17-40 or now 35mm f1.4 lenses. I use a Gitzo tripod or monopod and a gimbal head.

I can be reached at rpnewlin@gmail.com.