honorable mention
Andrew Shea united statesPhoto © Andrew Shea
title
The Forgotten World
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entry description
This image was taken in Barrow, Alaska in October of 2017. The weather conditions were quite adverse during the day in such an inhospitable environment as the Northern most City in North America. The juxtaposition of the telephone lines disappearing into the snow and the texture of the ground surrounded on either side by two bodies of water churning from the high winds made for a captivating moment. The figure walking across this land bridge and standing as a lone object between these natural forces made for a powerful composition. Barrow Alaska, the northern most city in North America is located well within the Arctic Circle. The landscape is composed entirely of tundra, creating an incredible landscape devoid of any large vegetation. This landscape is in-fact a polar desert, where precipitation is extremely low, yet through the sustained high winds throughout the winter, snow collects after blowing for thousands of miles across the flat terrain. I sought through this image to capture this environment in which the native alaskans call home and have adapted to for generations. This unstable environment however with the melting of the permafrost below, the reduction of coastal sea ice and the erosion of coasts threatens the way of life within these communities, long forgotten and neglected by the rest of the United States.back to gallery