“Nothing Left but Stories”

Self portrait from July, 2023.

(Real, single-shot image. Not AI.)

In honour of World Glacier Day, I wanted to share this image again, one of my more personal and most meaningful favourites I’ve been able to capture. 🤍

Note: This image was safely captured with the iceberg being firmly grounded in knee-deep water after being washed ashore a few days earlier.

This is an image I’ve had in the back of my head for at least a decade, but never imagined I would actually capture it. While in Iceland during midsummer 2023, I spent many nocturnal nights wandering around the many lagoons next to many glaciers, listening to the ice crack and crumble, keeping keeping my mind open to the possibilities of creating something in these dramatic, beautiful, eerie, and almost sad-feeling scenes.

After spending several nights exploring around this particular glacier, one night we witnessed a massive calving right in front of us: A chunk of ice the size of a huge apartment building broke off from the toe of glacier, underwater beneath the lagoon, emerging in wild, frothy chaos. My jaw dropped, watching the drama unfold as the glacier ice crumbled, creating waves that washed hundreds of other icebergs far up onto the shoreline.

A few days later, I returned to see the settled damage. I found a smaller glacier, and smaller icebergs spread along the beach and firmly grounded in small pools of water along the edge of the lagoon. It was a bittersweet feeling to see just how beautiful the ice was, but heartbreaking knowing these chunks of ice were melting rapidly and will never be part of this ancient glacier again.

That night, at around 3am under the midsummer blue hour light, I channelled my feelings into this image… realizing that in time, if we don’t look after our Mother Earth, these glaciers will be nothing left but stories. Many have already become so.