In 1993, I painted the constellation-themed mural Two Bears and Variations on the side of 1224 W. Lombard Street in the Sowebo section of Baltimore. The design was selected from submissions to the Baltimore Mural Program by the community association. I based it on a series of small paintings I had made inspired by Baroque star … Read More
News
From Antarctica to Jupiter
In 2015 I photographed the underside of sea ice from inside the underwater Observation Tube in Antarctica in 2015. The Ob Tube, as it’s known around McMurdo Station, is a steel manhole with windows that is inserted through the ice adjoining McMurdo Station during the research season. This photo was just licensed by the University of Texas to illustrate an … Read More
Walking the Shores of Tasersuatsiaq (aka Lake Ferguson)
Panorama of Tasersuatsiaq (also known as Lake Ferguson) with boathouses of the Kangerlussuaq Roklub (Rowing Club). South of Kangerlussuaq is a bridge over Qinnguata Kuussua (the Watson River) and a fork in the gravel road. Turn left and the road climbs Black Ridge and the TACAN, bear right and the road follows the edge of … Read More
Visible Effects of Climate Change at the Russell Glacier
The effects of a warming climate over the past 67 years can be seen in comparing these two photos. The loss of ice from the Russell Glacier at the edge of the Greenland ice cap is noticeable when comparing the photo above that I took in September 2021 with the one below taken in 1954 … Read More
Close, Closer, Closest: Salix glauca, an Arctic Dwarf Willow
The rolling hills of the tundra around Kangerlussuaq are covered with small shrubs — nothing grows higher than a few feet in the Arctic climate. One common plant is Salix glauca, a dwarf species of willow. During September, it was covered with fibrous white cottony tufts with tiny black seeds. The top photo shows a … Read More
Initial Reflections on My Greenland Experience
Yesterday I made the long trip home from the Arctic village of Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, where I spent the month of September documenting its an unusual geopolitical and cross-cultural history. Having been thwarted by the pandemic from beginning it in summer of 2020 as planned, in mid-July I jumped on the sudden opportunity to book flights … Read More
Climate Change at the Reindeer Glacier
The glacier in 2021 (above) and 2018 (below). It has changed so much in three years, I didn’t recognize it at first.
Welcome to Sondrestrom Air Base
The air traffic control tower at the Sondrestrom Air Base in Kangerlussuaq with a decorative sign on the roof of the building behind it and a welcome sign with the names of the unit and the base commander in front of it appears in many vintage photographs from the 1960s and ’70s. Above, a 1972 … Read More
New Uses for Old Oil Drums
The guardrail along the road up the side of Black Ridge in Kangerlussuaq is made from old metal oil drums filled with gravel to weigh then down and painted in bright colors, with holes punched in the sides and a cable strung through to connect them. Three photos here show a close-up, a single barrel, … Read More
Changing Light
This afternoon I headed for Lake Ferguson (Tasersuatsiaq in Greenlandic), about a mile-long walk on a dirt road from where I’m staying. The forecast for 50% chance of snow flurries turned out to be accurate in an unexpected way, because sun and blue skies alternated with gray skies and light snow. This happened three times … Read More