David Doubilet – Antarctica
The following article appeared on May 17, 2014 in the Schleswig-Holstein Journal, the magazine of the Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag, as the conclusion of my series of articles on the work of David Doubilet. The exhibition with the images of the renowned underwater photographer opened on May 15, 2014 in the Schleswig City Museum, complemented by David Doubilet's lecture the following day.
Anyone who wants to survive as a professional photographer in today's highly competitive image market must always take on new challenges - even if it means pushing themselves to the limit. This also applies to such famous and successful nature photographers as David Doubilet. After concentrating on the warm seas in the first decades of his career, his geographical and thus thematic range has recently expanded considerably. "It was only late in my life," he recently said, "that I began to take an interest in the cold regions of the earth. I was almost seduced by the magic of icebergs, and since then I have been studying them at every opportunity."
For David Doubilet, icebergs are a perfect metaphor for the sea: only a fraction of them is visible. Three years ago, when David Doubilet was diving near Danko Island in the Antarctic in search of an exciting scene, he suddenly had the ideal motif in front of him: the flat tip of an iceberg with a small flock of lively gentoo penguins squabbling and pushing each other into the water. Some of the squabblers circled the iceberg and resurfaced on the other side.
"I had my finger on the shutter button and was very excited," said David Doubilet, describing the moment he took the picture printed here. "Three penguins in the right place in the water in front of the shimmering blue iceberg, the rest of the group on the white tip, the melancholy grey of the sky in the background and the moving, glittering surface of the water that gives the photo that special something."
The masterpiece of a great photographer – on display in the exhibition at the Schleswig City Museum.
