A cold morning, going to work, while the city is still asleep, that is a real fuss. One thing I love about them, though, is my hot coffee in a thermos. It’s my fuel, my reason to conquer a heartless morning. But what if the daylight would only span for a few hours before darkness reigns over the horizon? Everything frozen, back to sleep.
This is what the Ontario-based photographer Michael Davies and his friend Markus tried to challenge, only that not downtown, but 20km south of the Arctic Circle, namely near Pangirtung, a place where the artist in question worked for the last ten years, as a photographer.
They took a thermos, filled it with hot tea, went to the above-mentioned subzero temperatures’ haven and created a spectacular series of photos, a mirage inspired by our mother nature. With Markus on the set, taking full advantage of the perfect lighting conditions, the hot tea was thrown in the air and immortalized on the digital screen as the liquid instantaneously froze without having a mere chance to say hello to the snowy surface.
I like their work, I like it a lot, because it’s not only beautiful, it’s metaphorical, in an easy way, without trying to describe the meaning of life, it teaches about conceptualized simplicity. Using so few, but imagining so much, they brought nature closer to us, connecting our senses to its desires.
Don’t fool yourselves, these were not easy to make. Everything is planned to the last detail, with temperature tracking, angles, wind direction and speed all set to describe the atmosphere in the most sensitive kind of way.
Lighting is also a very important factor, remember, over there, you have so little, you need to act quickly. Enjoy this amazingly crafted set, it deserves your attention in full. Let yourself captivated by the colors and feel the chilling embrace surrounding you.
