Frozen in Time: Images of Antarctica portray the impacts of climate change in new photography exhibit
Tyndall Figures, Lake Hoare, © Diane Tuft
In 2012, Diane Tuft traveled to Antarctica on a National Science Foundation grant, enduring harsh winds and plunging temperatures to tell a richer story of Antarctica’s stark beauty. Capturing the landscape in abstract ways, her 13 large-scale photographs illustrate a whole new perspective on Antarctica. From cracks in glaciers to atmospheric gases trapped within the frozen bubbles of icy lakes, these images illuminate our planet’s long history of climate change.
Lake Vanda Composition, © Diane Tuft
Through January 23, 2020, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) will present “Frozen in Time: Images of Antarctica” featuring photographs by the New York-based award-winning photographer that highlight the changing landscape of Antarctica.
Tuft visited Antarctica intending to photograph the depletion of the ozone layer, but instead focused on the history of climate change recorded within Antarctica’s icy landscape. Her photographs capture Antarctica’s landscape in abstracted ways—confronting the viewer with a new perspective.
“The Antarctica I saw was a place that served as a real-life time capsule, a perfectly preserved record of hundreds of millions of years of biological and geological history.”
Crystalline Deposits, Lake Vanda, © Diane Tuft
Tuft went through the same rigorous training all Antarctic explorers must undertake to prepare for her trip, reaching the continent’s rarely witnessed remote landscapes by braving minus 40F temperatures and 67mph winds. Complimenting the journey of Antarctic adventurer-scientists featured in the ongoing exhibition “Antarctic Dinosaurs,” the photographs in “Frozen in Time: Images of Antarctica” give visitors another way to experience the continent—through the eyes of an artist.