#84. Antarctica: Finding Stillness in a World of Ice and Light

The journey began in the Falklands, where remoteness slowly settles into your system. From there we continued south towards South Georgia, crossing a stretch of ocean where a heavy storm reshaped everything for several days. The sea became the dominant presence, and even simple movement on board required full attention.

And then, after all that motion, the world changed.

Entering Antarctica

I still remember the moment we entered Antarctic waters. The storm had passed, and the ocean began to settle. Icebergs appeared in the distance, drifting like silent structures across an open field of water and light.

Even though I had seen Antarctica in images and documentaries before, nothing prepares you for its scale. The landscape does not arrive in a single impression. It unfolds slowly, in layers of white, blue and silver.

There was a moment where everything seemed to pause. Not only outside the boat, but also in perception itself.

A few days in Antarctica

We only spent a few days in Antarctica, yet time felt unusually expanded there. We moved through the landscape in Zodiacs, passing ice formations shaped over centuries, and observing penguins moving through the snow in steady rhythm.

My camera was always with me, but photography gradually shifted. It became less about capturing and more about observing. Less about framing, more about noticing.

What stayed with me were not only the vast landscapes, but the smaller interruptions within them. Ice cracking somewhere in the distance. Light shifting across frozen surfaces. Two penguins standing still in a field of white.

As a healing nature photographer 

As a photographer working within healing nature photography, I am increasingly drawn to work that creates space for attention rather than interpretation. Antarctica deepened that way of seeing.

The landscape did not ask to be explained. It simply unfolded.

Bringing the Silence Home

After returning home I spent many months revisiting the photographs from this journey together with my photo coach Diana Bokje. From thousands of images, we eventually curated a series of 32 works that reflect not only what I saw, but also what stayed with me.

You can view the full collection via my shop at Werk aan de Muur.

Antarctica now forms one chapter of a wider archive. Another body of work is emerging from the two years I lived in Norway, a landscape that feels closer to everyday life, yet connected through the same search for attention, stillness and presence in nature.

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Album - Antarctica: A World of Stillness and Light:
https://www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/shopalbum/Antarctica-Een-wereld-van-stilte-en-licht/29495/86027

Album - The Penguins of the Southern Ocean:
https://www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/shopalbum/Pinguins-van-de-Zuidelijke-Oceaan/29495/96864