Joseph Michael
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Icebergs

Ten bergs, each given the name of someone we admired.

Medium
Photography, sound and film
Made
Antarctic Peninsula, 2015
Vessel
Australis
Named for
Shackleton, Mandela, Cousteau and others
Icebergs

Late at night on the 5th of February 2015 I encountered my first iceberg, instantly overwhelmed by curiosity and the infinite range of blue hues floating around in this magical playground.

In order to categorise the photography, sound recordings and film of each iceberg we gave them names. Although scientific in method, somehow the personification of ancient water molecules seemed to make the bergs ever more endearing to us.

The only remnants of their ten-thousand-year journey from a falling snowflake to calving off a glacier are these recordings, but their spirit lives on in the installations that are created. Un hommage to nature and the atoms that connect us, for we are biologically bound with what we see.

Ernest — for Shackleton
Nelson — for Mandela
Ulysses
Jacques — for Cousteau
Magnus — for the skipper
Deakins — for Roger
Valentine — the arch collapsed on Valentine’s Day
Winston — for Churchill
Yoko
Lincoln — for Abraham

10 images · click any to view

Antarctica — behind the scenes

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