Leonard Sussman: From the Aleutians Islands to the North Pole
These photographs were taken during a 5000 mile 52-day research cruise on the United States Coast Guard icebreaker Healy from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the North Pole and back. I was chosen as photographer for the science team because of my background as a fine art photographer, and more specifically, because of my experience photographing the Arctic landscape over the past ten years.
During our many weeks in the Arctic Ocean, I photographed the pack ice in its many forms as well as the science operations on the Healy. Being and photographing “in the ice” for over one month was a wondrous and magical experience. Though it was a long journey, I never tired of the experience or of seeing and photographing the landscape. I also had the great fortune to be with an amazing group of people, including the officers and crew, the scientists, and the technicians.
This National Science Foundation (NSF) funded cruise was part of the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) an eleven-nation effort to collect cruise-based data in order to create a baseline of data to help to understand the current and future effects of climate change on the Arctic. Surprisingly, there is much about the Arctic that is still not known.
As you will see from the science images, the work done is very “hands on.” It goes on 24/7, often in extreme weather conditions. Much of the research done on cruises cannot be duplicated by any other means and the data and results give invaluable information.
About the Artist:
Leonard Sussman (San Francisco, California, 1947) has been a photographer for almost 60 years. He has had numerous individual and group exhibits in the United States and Europe. He was represented by the Witkin Gallery in New York for many years until its closure. Sussman prints all of his own work, be it in analog or digital format. He has a B.A. in Art from the University of California, Berkeley (1968) and an M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (1977). He is Professor Emeritus of Art at Baruch College of the City University of New York.
