Floating Blue – Photography by Thomas Pickarski

June 10 – July 15, 2023
Owen Gallery

I developed a deep love for the eternal beauty of icebergs as a child by enjoying their visual portrayal through photographs and paintings. This ultimately led to my having spent the last 12 summers traveling through arctic regions seeking direct experiences with these fleeting forms. They possess characteristics of color, shape, line, form, and scale that exist independent from the visual references we tend to be familiar with in the natural world. I find them to appear sculpturally magnificent as if crafted in a way that seems too perfect for this world.

I especially love the quality of soft light during what is called, The Blue Hour. It occurs during the last stages of twilight in the evening when indirect sunlight imposes a predominantly blue shade on the ice that is different from the blue shade visible during most of the day. There’s also a sharp drop in temperature, sometimes allowing fog to roll in, bringing an eerie feel to the boat ride through the fjord of towering ice. I travel there in very late August when The Blue Hour is in its prime.

In this series of photographs, I aim to portray both the ethereal beauty of icebergs, as well as the otherworldliness of the landscapes in which they exist.