April 10, 2014

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Glacial Poetry: Photos Don’t Do Them Justice

I have never seen a glacier (or any sea ice for that matter) in real life, though I’ve seen them in countless photos. I’m spellbound by James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey, at the shapes and scale of ice in the Arctic.

By Hannah Waters

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

I have never seen a glacier (or any sea ice for that matter) in real life, though I've seen them in countless photos. I'm spellbound by James Balog's Extreme Ice Survey, at the shapes and scale of ice in the Arctic. I express the perfect mixture of dismay and wonder at "then and now" photos that show how much ice we've lost over the century. I've always known it's not enough, that a photo could never do justice to the hulking ice structures at the ends of the world.

A new essay by Nancy Lord, accompanied by photographs by Irene Owsley, really drove home how little I understand about glaciers and sea ice in the wild. Her lovely words, describing her time working as a guide on an Alaska tour ship, get at the meager attempts by naturalist-writers, scientists, and tourist photographers to export majestic glaciers from the cold and into familiar landscapes through words and photography. But even the finest photography is inadequate, she writes:

These days, we turn to visual images. When we “see,” we forgo much of our imaginative effort, the long reach of association, one thing inadequately representing another. Although, in the end, it’s all inadequate. The words and the pictures are small, distant, antiseptic; the thing that is not the real thing lacks the cold air, the deep rumble, runoff rubbing on stone, birdsong. You cannot turn your head. You cannot lick the ice. You miss the whole sky, the waterfall just out of the picture, the concealed seal drawing a vee across still water.

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Listen to the full essay (accompanied by photography) in the video below, and read the whole thing at Terrain.org.

https://vimeo.com/80720819

Hannah Waters is a science writer fascinated by the natural world, the history of its study, and the way people think about nature. On top of science blogging, she runs the Smithsonian's Ocean Portal, a marine biology education website, and is science editor for Ladybits.

Hannah is a child of the internet, who coded HTML frames on her Backstreet Boys fanpage when she was in middle school. Aptly, she rose to professional science writing through blogging (originally on Wordpress) and tweeting profusely. She's written for The Scientist, Nature Medicine, Smithsonian.com, and others.

Before turning to full-time writing, Hannah wanted to be an oceanographer or a classicist, studying Biology and Latin at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She's done ecological research on marine food webs, shorebird conservation, tropical ecology and grassland ecosystems. She worked as a lab technician at the University of Pennsylvania studying molecular biology and the epigenetics of aging. And, for a summer, she manned a microphone and a drink shaker on a tour boat off the coast of Maine, pointing out wildlife and spouting facts over a loudspeaker while serving drinks.

Email her compliments, complaints and tips at culturingscience at gmail dot com.

More by Hannah Waters

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