Melting Away: A Ten-Year Journey through Our Endangered Polar Regions

by Camille Seaman

For ten years Camille Seaman has documented the rapidly changing landscapes of Earth's polar regions. As an expedition photographer aboard small ships in the Arctic and Antarctic, she has chronicled the accelerating effects of global warming on the jagged face of nearly fifty thousand icebergs. Seaman's unique perspective of the landscape is entwined with her Native American upbringing: she sees no two icebergs as alike; each responds to its environment uniquely, almost as if they were living beings. Through Seaman's lens, each towering chunk of ice—breathtakingly beautiful in layers of smoky gray and turquoise blue—takes on a distinct personality, giving her work the feel of majestic portraiture. Melting Away collects seventy-five of Seaman's most captivating photographs, lifeaffirming images that reveal not only what we have already lost, but more importantly what we still have that is worth fighting to save.

Genres: Photography, Environment, Art, Nonfiction, Nature, Travel

156 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2014

Reviews

[Paul]

This book contains a collection of seriously breathtaking images, punctuated by a few autobiographical snippets and an environmental message that is certainly deeply moving if not entirely accurate on occasion.

There're no fancy-schmancy photographising tricks on display here; Seaman's talent lies in finding the most powerful images our planet's polar regions have to offer and putting them onto film to share with the rest of us. It's very moving work and I recommend it to anybody with an interest in photography and/or the world we live in.

[Dave Schaafsma]

I recently read Alun Anderson's After the Ice, a 2006 non-fiction book about the melt-off of ancient ice in the Arctic, which the author tries not to make too sad. Because all the environmental books in the last fifty years are sad, (and sometimes desperate and angry) and who needs to read that? Those of us who read like our sadness best served in fiction and memoirs. Sad books about the actual end of time are just too scary and real to deal with, though the great influx of dystopian fiction points sharply at the same political and social issues as well, of course. So Anderson tries to show some hope in the resilience of the Inuit and in the marvels of science, which might finally save us. But it's not finally optimistic, of course.

The recent and long drawn out tragi-comic American presidential run-off has featured insults, lies, massive ignorance, and jokes about hands, but never until recently talk about the environment. Several Florida mayors, some of them even Republican, begged CNN to feature at least one question about just what the hell the candidates intend to do about the frightening rising sea levels. As you know, politicians in the U.S. have been largely been bought by Corporate Interests who just cannot have climate change discussed. Bad for biz. The U.S. has until recently been a leader in not responding to climate change, favoring the financial interests of corporate stockholders over the interests of humans and other animals. The debate did feature a question about climate change, the first in the long, weary clown car of "debates" about building trillion dollar walls to keep out immigrants and other dark fantasies; the answers were predictable and typically, sadly reflecting their own ignorance and/or the required ideological stance of their bosses.

Seaman is a photographer who has been documenting the astonishingly fast melting of the ice for the last ten years, much much faster than any scientist predicted. She is the daughter of Native American and African parents, and tells her story between absolutely haunting and breath-taking photographs of both the Arctic and Antarctic, focusing mainly on melting glaciers, with some images of animals. I defy you to view them unmoved, and I urge you to view them. They and her story are surprisingly, in spite of the obvious call to action of the title's project, sadder than angry, more aesthetic than explicitly political, which is to say as an artist she is all about the need to honor life and natural beauty--imagine that--and why the particular beauties she finds there are worth preserving. Ways of life are also being lost, and we don't see faces of the Inuit, for instance, but the book touches on ways of the spirit and the need to preserve them, too.

Here's her call to action:

"What is your special gift? What is it you do that brings you great joy? Inevitably what makes you happy serves others. We all live in service to one another and when we acknowledge that, good things happen. The best thing you can do to help the planet is to do what makes you feel good. I know it sounds trite, but when you are happy, feeling fulfilled, you do not consume as much; you do not waste as much. You make better decisions, decisions that benefit others as well as yourself, and those better decisions have a lasting effect."

Here's her Ted talks page:

https://www.ted.com/speakers/camille_...

Here's some of the photos:

https://www.ted.com/talks/camille_sea...

[Chrisl]

Wonderful photography, even if the wonders of climate change aren't joy inspiring.

[Vrinda]

A masterpiece. Stunningly beautiful book, recommended by a friend who is a librarian for a glacier drawing project I was working on. Very glad I decided to go through the whole thing to look at all the photos and read Camille’s essays and captions about her life, her identities and influences, and the way ice and climate change have moved and affected her. And what they can teach us about ourselves.

[Owlseyes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFfcw...

[Bryan]

The glacier images are devastatingly powerful, to imagine their immense size, age, and fragility. I will return to this again and again for a look at a vanishing world.

[Janice]

Outstanding photography featuring glaciers, penguins, and the occasional polar bear or walrus, shot at both extremes of the planet.

[Jane]

Compelling photographs and the photographer's story and written parts are equally compelling. A very strong environmental message.

[ems]

i think i found my favorite pictures of Anything

[Andrew Blok]

Melting Away is a collection of photographs and essays by Camille Seaman from and reflecting on her time as expedition photographer in the arctic and antarctic regions. Her photographs are haunting and beautiful and capture a world that will—if fossil fuel consumption continues as it has been—disappear at humanity's hand. Seaman's essays give greater context: telling the story of how she came to the arctic, how it has changed her view of the world, and how she reconnected and made sense of her culture in the polar regions of the earth. This book is definitely worth looking through. I can't stop thinking about ice now and I appreciate her thoughtful essays. If you can't get your hands on a book, at least go look at her website where you can view a lot of the photos in this book and photos from elsewhere, too.

[Lynne]

This is a stunningly beautiful book. The photography is almost breathtaking. Seaman reveals her part Native American heritage in her reverence for all of the earth and all of what it holds. In the essay portions of this book, she draws the reader into her dedication to her craft and her openness to appreciation of what she sees. We see ice and sky in these images; each view is different and each remarkable. We see wildlife in photos of penguins, walrus, polar bears and birds. But they are not the most important feature of these photographs; their relation to and dependence on this habitat is what we see. The author leaves us with the challenge to each do our part to preserve this beauty.

[Ruth Curtis]

I started reading this book as an E-book, but after looking at some of the pictures of the icebergs I decided that I had to own the book. I was right, when I received the large book, it had gorgeous pictures in beautiful colors.

This book should be seen by everyone. It shows what climate change is doing to our planet. I can’t understand why it’s so hard to convince people that climate change is destroying our planet, and unless we change the way we live, life on Earth is going to get extremely difficult.

[Scott Harris]

A love affair with the polar regions of the world is wonderfully capture in Seaman's reflections and photos. She captures not only the beauty and unusual majesty of the Arctic an Antartic, but also the dramatic changes happening in what strike many as unchanging frozen landscapes. She helps readers see the devastation on life in these regions and the lingering impact of humanity, both good and bad in these environments

[Louise]

Majestic photos of both the Arctic and Antarctic ice and fauna. Compelling shots if polar bear and penguins. Thoughtfully curated with detailed captions and the author's story. Delightful and disturbing to see the environmental havoc imposed on these fragile biomes.

[Julie]

I’ll be honest, I didn’t read anything. I just loved the pictures.

[Jo-Ann]

Don't deprive yourself. Read this.

[Kristal Stidham]

Can I give this book seven stars on a five-star scale?

First of all, Seaman's photographs of the Arctic and Antarctic are ridiculous, in a good way. She has a talent that the wannabe in me loves to hate. With just about each image, I found moments of Zen - the noise of the world faded away, I got completely lost in the photo, and when I found myself again I felt really, really small.

The narrative is personal and poignant, and just enough to make the point. The book is an undisguised call-to-action (if you can't guess from the title), but what you won't expect is Seaman's very unique solution to the world's problems. I won't spoil it here, but I have saved it in my short list of favorite literary quotes.

Seek out a copy of this book. Buy it or find it through your library system, but do read it. Soon.

[Roxanne]

This book is a large photographic collection. Over ten years this author traveled yearly to the North and South Poles aboard ships witnessing first hand the mountains of ice that exist at the poles. Her last visit was in 2011. She was heartbroken by the lack of ice. She saw almost no snow, it was warm and no sea ice means a chain reaction that will ripple across the planet. We will also have more storms and hurricanes. Our government does not see any urgency in this matter. This book has excellent photographs of different iceberg formations, sunsets, penqiuns. artic bears and walruses. We need to respect our planet, not use it then discard it. We need to save our planet.

[Greg Minshall]

very beautiful, evocative photos of the cold places

the accompanying, mostly autobiographical, text gives insight into the photographer/author. i read this on my ipad (via Amazon) and appreciate the high resolution (of most of the photos) that allowed me to expand the photos to fill my screen.

[Tuoxigun]

Photos are amazing. Though you can download similar pictures as you want, those photos tell stories about human beings and one brave member among them. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot, and moved by the author's willing to share.

[Bryan]

Stunning photograph of two lands dying from climate change.

[David James]

The photography is stunning, and the author's story is fascinating.

[Clare]

Reviewed here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blo...