Photographer Carolyn Marks Blackwood, who lives on a cliff above the Hudson River, has spent her photographic career taking wintertime pictures of ice in and around the Hudson. In a new series, "Arctic Midnight—Horizons," she turns her lens on a much larger icy canvas. Last summer, she boarded a ship headed north out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and spent most of July and August alongside dozens of scientists exploring the polar region. "If you want to feel like whipped cream," she told me, "go out and be an artist on a scientific expedition. I felt so superfluous."
Each night at midnight, Blackwood photographed what she saw from the ship's deck, capturing the complex beauty of summertime in a part of the world known for its midnight sun. The arctic is often the source of valid environmental hand-wringing, but this series showcases its stunning aesthetic value. Her photographs offer an 180-degree glimpse of the majestic 360-degree horizon that is unique to the Arctic in July and August. Returning to normal life after her expedition was hard, she added: "When I came back, I felt like the trees were in the way."
Click to enlarge these breathtaking images and you'll see what she means.
