Fragile Beauty 2025
While working in the National Geographic Expeditions Program, I made
my first trip to the Arctic in 2014. In the summer of 2024, I was on the
396th ship to transit the Northwest Passage, which spans from Western
Greenland to Alaska. In the decade between those two trips, I had
numerous assignments to other areas of the far north and south including
Iceland, Alaska, Svalbard, the Antarctic Peninsula and the
sub–Antarctic Islands of South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, (Islas
Malvinas).
Traveling with scientists, whose specialties included glaciology,
climatology, geology, marine biology, ornithology, and other areas of
scientific study, afforded me a unique opportunity to understand and
document our planet’s rapidly changing climate.
I have been extremely fortunate to have had these years to travel the
globe, not only in the polar regions, but also to equatorial areas
where global warming is expressing itself as devastating sea level rise,
felt acutely by the people who inhabit low lying islands and atolls.
Icebergs, the offspring of glaciers and ice sheets are a testament to
not only the beauty of our planet, but also of how rapidly our global
climate is changing. Icebergs are quite simply gorgeous. Each one is a
unique sculpture with a cautionary tale. The large color works in this
exhibit are a testament to the glory of the frozen landscape. I am often
asked if I manipulate my photographs because the colors are difficult
to comprehend as an artifact of natural processes. The intensity of the
blue color of ice is an indicator of how compact it is, as the visible
spectrum of light is only what could escape the chemical bond of oxygen
and hydrogen formed from the pressure of compacted snow over time.
Their color is often monochromatic, either white or blue, and
sometimes includes striations of black, indicating that the berg came
from land. As these rivers of ice descended under the force of gravity
towards the sea, they scraped away mountains and formed massive fjords
then cleaved off as icebergs into the ocean.
Since this collection of images spans a decade, many of the icebergs
shown are long gone, broken up as the fresh water from their demise has
been added to our world’s saltwater oceans, changing the fragile balance
of Earth’s ecosystems.
The small ambrotype pieces in this show are made of glass, a fragile
material, sharp and clear. The black and white tones reduce the icebergs
to shapes and compositions, removing the nuance of color. The small
size forces the viewer to come close to the work to examine the details
of the ice. These diminutive pieces ask the viewer to slow down and
leave behind the frenetic pace with which we now consume images. Let us
take a moment to appreciate the fragile beauty of this planet we call
home.