Stranded Iceberg III, Cape Bird Antarctica, December 2006, Camille Seaman

2011 TED fellow Camille Seaman has been photographing Icebergs for 10 years.  In her talk below she speaks of her first visceral response to their immensity and their fragility.  Her images tell the stories of their births, as they face their environments as distinct individuals, and poignantly of their deaths, as they each move toward their inevitable end.

Icebergs… have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own. Some go the distance traveling for many years slowly being eroded by time and the elements; others get snagged on the rocks and are whittled away by persistent currents. Still others dramatically collapse in fits of passion and fury.

…I approach the images of icebergs as portraits of individuals, much like family photos of my ancestors. I seek a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures–Camille Seaman

Iceberg Detail with Glaucous Gulls, East Greenland, 2006 Camille Seaman

* In honor of the 123rd birthday of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, who flew over the South Pole November 1929 and remained an influential figure in polar research until his death in 1957.