Thursday, May 6, 2010

The Incantation of This Whiteness...

Cornice Channel, Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica

"uncharted dangers", Prime Head, The Mouth of the Antarctic Sound, Antarctica

The Eastern Entry, King Frederik IX Land, Greenland

The Drake Passage, Island of Horn, Antartica Chilena

The Greenland Sea, Kap Patrick Brooke, Shannon Island, Greenland

The Arctic Ocean, Sea Ice, Looking North

Smith Sound, Kap Alexander, Greenland


But not yet have we solved the incantation of this whiteness, and learned why it appeals with such power to the soul...


Suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in broad circles; then quickly upheaved, as if sideways sliding from a submerged berg of ice, swiftly rising to the surface. A low rumbling sound was heard; a subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths...


...


~ Text fragments from Herman Melville's Moby Dick


~ Images from Thomas Joshua Cooper, True, Haunch of Venison, London, 2009