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The photographs are stark, strikingly beautiful, almost other worldly.
The man who took them agrees.
"It is the most raw, remote place on earth," John Higdon says of Antarctica, the subject of his exhibit at the Keystone Art & Culture Center, 420 Pearl St., which opens Friday with a reception.
"The ice will carve out rocks. It's so cold, so remote, so barren," says Higdon. "Antarctica is flat out ... it's indescribable."
But his photographs begin to tell the story.
Powerful cliffs of ice; harsh, windswept shore lines; strange but stunning coral; breathtaking sunsets, and roly-poly penguins living in the most extreme environment.
Higdon has captured a world that is so extreme, no humans can live in it permanently. Only about 5,000 people come to the continent for a period of time, mostly to conduct scientific experiments.
Back in 1999, Higdon, a merchant marine who has been all over the world, decided to seek work on a ship known as an ice breaker. The National Science Foundation hires the ship to take scientists to Antarctica, generally for 30 to 40 days.
He continued making trips for a decade.
So why did he choose Antarctica?
His answers would, for most of us, be the reasons not to go to Antarctica.
"Navigating around the ice would be a real challenge," he says. "You've got major wind conditions, and no communications. There would be no help if you screwed up and ran aground. A lot of places, you couldn't even have helicopters or planes come in."
Add to that the challenge of getting through 20, 30, even 60 feet of ice.
"Over time, the thing that really got me was the sheer power of the ice," he says.
And the lifelong photographer knew that visually, Antarctica would be stunning.
The most surprising thing for him was how many animals he saw.
"There were birds, whales, penguins, seals. The food chain is immense down there," he says. "You'd think it would be spotty because it's so harsh, but they can take it."
And Higdon notes, the animals aren't afraid of humans.
"I had to step over penguins and seals and it wouldn't bother them at all," he says.
There is also a lot of plant growth in the summer, when the temperature can get up to freezing. (In the winter, it's more like 40 below and dark all the time, Higdon says).
Scientists would often leave the ship and camp for several weeks.
"It's cold, but Minnesota can get that cold," Higdon says with a laugh. "I gotta give those guys credit. A 60 or 70-year-old man lugging a rucksack, digging up fossils. For them, it's all about discovery, about how this world works."
Being in such cold conditions, Higdon says he always has to worry about the short life of the batteries in his camera.
And taking photos from the ship can be a challenge.
"A tripod is useless," he says. "You try to steady yourself. Anything attached to the hull will reverberate."
When the ship is going through a particularly rough ice passage, Higdon says it can get really bad.
"Glasses get thrown off the table," he says. "And if you're inside the galley, below the water line, it sounds like a dumpster being rolled down a concrete hill. The boom, the shock, reverberates through the whole ship. You can barely talk once the ice gets really loud."
This past spring, Higdon decided 10 years was enough. For now, he's settling down at home in Pensacola, Florida, working on his photography.
His show at Keystone is his first professional art exhibit. He'll have 40 photographs on display, with another 40 or so in a slide show or in prints.
"There's really nothing else I want to do," he says. "Artistically, I need to get out and see if I can work as an artist."
"John Higdon: Photos of Antarctica"
Opening reception, Fri. 5-9 p.m.
Artist talk at 6:30 p.m.
Cont. through Jan. 23
First Fridays 5-9 p.m. Free
4th Friday Pour Party on Jan. 22
5-9 p.m. Working foundry
Call ahead for other times to visit
Keystone Art and Culture Center
420 Pearl St., 870-4869
www.keystoneart.org.
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