What We Stand To Lose
Moving through the populated edges of the high Arctic, it is impossible to ignore the rapid changes occurring throughout the communities that exist there. Towns are growing; more and bigger ships are arriving; and the weather is warming faster than anywhere else on the planet.
But away from the human infrastructure, it is blissfully easy to be seduced by the natural beauty of the vast landscapes. The monumental geology and expansive spaces assure us that they are impervious to our minute presence; that we are no match for the extremes of the temperature, nor the strange behavior of the light in these high latitudes.
I want to believe these assertions. But if you know where to look, the evidence is everywhere. The sea ice is breaking up. The glaciers are shrinking. The animals are confused. The maps are being redrawn. Making photographs in these beautiful places can feel simple, or even misleading. But the more I understand what is happening, the more these images feel like a desperately important attempt to gather and share all of the beauty and strangeness that is here, so that these places can be appreciated right now …and remembered later.