If you’ve so much as glanced at a Lonely Planet guidebook in the past 25 years, you’ll likely have seen the crisp, beautifully composed work of acclaimed Australian photographer Richard I’Anson.
A friend and long-time colleague of Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler, I’Anson has photographed places as diverse as India, Paris and the Australian outback. He’s also written the Lonely Planet Guide to Travel Photography.
But ever since he first saw it in 2006 – aboard the converted Russian research ship, the MV Alexey Maryshev – Antarctica has owned his heart, and his lens.
“Any excuse to go back, basically,” I’Anson jokes from his home in Sydney, during a rare couple of weeks downtime between trips to Kathmandu and Mongolia.
“After that first time to Antarctica in 2006, I didn’t return until 2016.” He’s been seven times since then, all with Aurora Expeditions, and has three more voyages booked in. “Trips nine, 10 and 11 are taken care of on the planning calendar,” he says.
His self-published coffee table tome, Way Down South, is his visual love letter to the frozen continent. Featuring 213 colour photographs taken over the past decade, it captures what travellers see during a 21-day voyage of Antarctica and South Georgia Island, starting from Ushuaia, Argentina.
Not being in control of your destiny in Antarctica – that is the preserve of the ship’s captain and the expedition leader – is anathema for the average free-spirited photographer. But I’Anson says you cannot beat this region for sheer beauty.
“It’s the ever-changing nature of a polar voyage that is so stimulating,” I’Anson writes in the book’s Photographer’s Notes. “The location, the scenery, the ice, the icebergs, the wildlife, the weather. Over two or three weeks, you typically experience everything the region offers: sunny days with blue skies, calm seas, rough seas and very occasionally, a messy sea (when the waves come from all directions and everything goes flying in the restaurant), eerie stillness, absolute silence, howling wind, gentle snowfall, sleet, rain, distant storms and mesmerising clouds.”
If that’s not enough to get you reaching for your camera kit, he describes the magic of dawn in Antarctica. “My days start early, waking in the dark to be out on deck (or at least the observation lounge) 30 minutes before sunrise to capture first light. I often experience the first hour alone, no matter how strongly I encourage others to join me.”
I’Anson details the Canon gear he travels with: the DSLRs (digital single-lens reflex) since 2016, and at least four zoom lenses. “More than twice as many images have been taken with the 70-200mm than any other lens,” he writes.
The Antarctic Peninsula might have an average summer day temperature of 0 degrees, but I’Anson reassures readers that “when the image you have hoped for is finally captured, the reality of working in bitterly cold conditions, strong winds and rough seas is soon forgotten!” The foreword to the book was written by explorer Greg Mortimer, an I’Anson travel companion.
Refreshingly, this book doesn’t shirk the hard questions. The photos show a “pristine wilderness”, I’Anson writes, but he adds that more than 90,000 people will go to Antarctica in 2026 aboard 200 ships.
Howard Whelan, the inaugural editor of Australian Geographic and now an expedition leader with Aurora who has been to Antarctica more than 100 times, encourages people to debate the issue.
Whelan says that in the early 1990s (when he first went to Antarctica), many of the research stations were far from pristine, nor environmentally aware.
The formation of the International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators in 1991 has improved practices greatly, he argues: “I feel proud of the role tourism has played in protecting Antarctica.”
Other voices in the debate, however, fear there is too much tourism.
Way Down South by Richard I’Anson, $150; available in select bookstores. See richardianson.com
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Fiona Carruthers writes on travel specialising in Reviews, World, Australia. Based in our Sydney newsroom, Fiona is editor of The Sophisticated Traveller.Connect via email.
