Antarctica in Black and Very White

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/antarctica-in-black-and-very-white/

Bernard Kalb and Walter Sullivan, in 1955, produced a very impressive collection of photographs about their fieldwork in Antarctica on Operation Deepfreeze. This was the largest expedition to Antarctica in which the United States had participated and produced vast amounts of information that were not previously known to the Western world. It is quite amazing and shocking that these photos had not been viewed until more than half a century after their creation. The photo pictured above, a shot of Sir Edmund Hillary, depicts the often slow, monotonous, chilling work of a man on the trans-Antarctic expedition.

This lonely lifestyle is demonstrated by the single figure in the frame. The placement of Hillary in the front of the frame implies a long distance traveled, and the repeated landscape implies that this journey is not one of much variation. This is a very quiet, solemn landscape and breaks into the emotions of this man in this particular setting. The overwhelming, predominantly white background adds to this sense of loneliness while at work in this environment. Even though this photograph has an almost forlorn sense to it, there is also a quality of progress, expansion, and hopefulness. The crack that runs from the middle of the photograph to the background depicts land that has already been traveled and gives a sense of movement forwards. The man has a cold look on his face, but his body language is telling a story of someone who is comfortable in his place and knows what he is doing.

Although this image is powerful on it’s own as a depiction of a worker’s place in the Antarctic landscape, there is so much of the story which is not contained within the single image. There is much work that is being done by Operation Deepfreeze that is not depicted here, such as their work with penguins or cargo ships. So although this image is a good summation of this environment, the story is greatly enhanced with the accompanying images by both Kalb and Sullivan. For this entire image set, the captions and text do not seem to be necessary and the photographs themselves provide enough information for the viewer to infer and place them in context. This image, as well as the rest of the set, is very powerful and informative because they depict a world that virtually no one sees. This field of work is so foreign that images are necessary to demonstrate the vastness and untouched quality that this land possesses. Kalb and Sullivan do a great job of throwing the viewer into this environment with the use of wide-angle landscape and action shots.