Melt: Portrait of an Iceberg

Born in Aylesbury, a small market town in England, Simon Harsent’s passion for photography grabbed him from an early age. He enrolled to study the subject at Watford College, and after graduating, went on to assist some of London’s top photographers. In order to pursue his passion of photography further, Simon left London and moved to Australia in 1988, where he quickly established himself as one of the country’s most exciting young photographers. After a successful decade in Australia spent working on some of the country’s most awarded advertising campaigns, Simon moved to New York to further his career as a fine art and commercial photographer. New York based since 1997, Simon continues to work on award winning campaigns, in addition to developing his signature personal landscape work. Of this work, Melt: Portrait of an Iceberg, he writes:

‘This portfolio begins with images of the massive icebergs as they enter Greenland’s Disco Bay from the Ilulissat Icefjord; it ends with the icebergs off the East Coast of Newfoundland, by which time they have travelled hundreds of miles, and have been so battered and broken down that they are little more than ghosts of what they once were. Seeing them first overpowering in grandeur and then, later, about to be absorbed back into the flux from which they came, is both beautiful and humbling: a metamorphosis that endows them with a life-span, each with it’s own personality, each with it’s own story.

This project had its origin in a wholly personal moment; a personal journey. It is impossible, however, to look at these images and not think of the environmental issues we face right now. Just as the choice I made in my childhood in some ways defined me as a man, so the choices we are making as a species will define who we become, and what becomes of the planet on which we live.’

Tagged as: fine art photography, iceberg, iceberg photography, nature photography, Simon Harsent photography