Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 2015 Mar
Contents
Story and Photographs by MURRAY FREDERICKS End of the Earth W hat does nothing look like? I traveled all the way to Greenland to find out. In the space of three years, I made six trips there from my home in Australia. I was drawn to the polished white emptiness of the place—a landscape devoid of features, per- fectly flat, with ice extending to the horizon in every direction. Shooting in this remote location was cold, hard work. I lived for months at a time in a tent on the Greenland ice sheet, where windchills plunged below -60°F and ground blizzards blew for days. At the worst times I imagined my family, my children, and I thought, I can’t do this. It’s not worth the risk. But I stuck it out, and as the weather im- proved, so did my mood—and my pictures. When you exist for long periods in a void, the external and internal worlds blur together. The mind slows and becomes sensitive to any change; the slightest shift in light or weather is dramatic. The photography I created dur- ing those long months became an exhibition series and a documentary that capture the feeling of being there: It was, as the film’s title says, like Nothing on Earth. j A constellation of orbs, rings, and halos hangs above the Greenland ice sheet. These optical phe- nomena occur when ice crystals—suspended by powerful winds called piteraqs—refract sunlight. ICESHEET #4724, 22̊ AND 46̊ HALO, TANGENT ARC, PARRY ARC, CIRCUMZENITHAL ARC, AND PARHELIC CIRCLE
Links
Archive
2015 Feb
2015 Apr
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page