Lomos in the Arctic (The Last Cruise)
written by stouf
on October 22nd, 2009
, 24 comments
(15 votes)
Here we are… My last Arctic lomocation, after “When Holga went in the Arctic” and “Wide Arctic Horizons”. I feel quite emotional when I think about all what I lived during these expeditions. Working on the Amundsen, one of the Canadian coast-guard icebreakers, transformed into an oceanographic research vessel, is probably one of the craziest things I will have done in my life…I met people that changed my life there. I’ve seen things that can’t be easily described with words. My memories are full of images, instants and sounds that I’ll keep in my mind for the rest of my life.
During this cruise in Baffin Bay, we’ve seen many icebergs. Icebergs are pieces of glaciers that form on land, then break and float around, transported by currents. Icebergs are very different from sea-ice, the product of the freezing of the sea. The first most noticeable difference is their size. Some are big as buildings, and when you think that only one tenth of it is out of the water, you really get struck by the insane amount of solid water that they represent. Second, they’re formed from freshwater on land and they are way cleaner than sea-ice (which sometimes gets greenish/brownish due to phytoplankton) with sometimes very beautiful blue tints. And last is their shape. Sometimes they’re like cathedrals with spikes and rough edges, and, sometimes they look all soft, like a Popsicle that was licked by the tongue of the ocean. This huge difference of appearance is due to their history. Initially an iceberg will always look rough and pointy because it is carved by the wind, then it detaches and slowly melts in the sea, under the surface. After reaching a tipping point, where the mass of ice under the water is less than the one over the surface, the iceberg flips upside-down, showing its soft bottom with nice curves and round edges. It beautiful… But extremely dangerous. Sailors told me that a flipping iceberg can arm ships if it’s happening too close…
I was also extremely happy to return to the Labrador fjords. It’s there that in 2006 I took this shot. It’s really one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. The mountains cut the wind and the calm waters sometimes transform in a real mirror. The reflects of the mountains being only perturbed by our waves.
I hope I’ll live some more adventures like this one. It really marked me forever.About the shots: I processed all the slides with my Jobo in my kitchen and the black and whites were processed by a lab in Québec. Two galleries, one with a Canon F1N and the other with a Horizon Perfekt.
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