Gallery: Beautifully Bleak Photos of Antarctica's Enormous Icebergs
Photos by Jean de Pomereu01SansNom08-©JdePomereu
Sans Nom is photographer and science journalist Jean de Pomereu's meditation on the monumental — but temporary — icebergs of Antarctica.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu02SansNom07-©JdePomereu
With his photographic work, De Pomereu is interested in the changing public consciousness about Antarctica, from an imagined land in previous centuries to the very real place where important science is done today, albeit still far removed from most people's day-to-day attention.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu03SansNom06-©JdePomereu
The iceberg portraits in Sans Nom are abstract, almost impressionistic, as reminiscent of broad brush strokes as they are hardened mountains of ice.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu04SansNom05-©JdePomereu
"Antarctica is uninhabited," says de Pomereu, "It doesn’t belong to anyone. It doesn’t have an indigenous population, and really the majority of what goes on down there is science, so whether you’re talking about artistic images or scientific images, it all sort of knots together in the scientific realm."
Photos by Jean de Pomereu05SansNom04-©JdePomereu
The diffuse light in Sans Nom was captured in the early morning hours of a single day in the Antarctic summer, when the sun is always above the horizon.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu06SansNom03-©JdePomereu
The photographer traveled to Antarctica on a Chinese ice breaker to visit and report on the work of researchers.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu07SansNom02-©JdePomereu
De Pomereu traveled from berg to berg on a ski-doo piloted by a Russian researcher.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu08SansNom09-©JdePomereu
Despite the temptation to draw in the issue of climate change, de Pomereu says the epic ice crack that punctuates the series was more a sign of the coming of summer, and a reminder of the impermanence of the vast ice scape as it prepares to dissolve back into the sea.
Photos by Jean de Pomereu09SansNom01-©JdePomereu
In Antarctica, objects tend to lose their sense of scale, an effect the photographer hoped to convey with his abstracted impressions of the icebergs.
