The Last Iceberg
Grand Pinnacle Iceberg, Greenland, 2006
The Last Iceberg is one piece of a larger project entitled “Melting Away” which documents the polar regions of our planet, their environment, life forms, history of human explorations and the communities that work and live there.
Nick Cave once sang, “All things move toward their end.” Icebergs give the impression of doing just that, in their individual way much as humans do; they have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own. Some go the distance traveling for many years slowly being eroded by time and the elements; others get snagged on the rocks and are whittled away by persistent currents. Still others collapse in fits of passion and fury.
The Last Iceberg chronicles just a handful of the many thousands of iceberg that are currently headed to their end. I approach the images of iceberg as portraits of individuals, much life family photos of ancestors. I seek a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures.
–Camille Seaman
“The Last Iceberg,” an exhibition of photographs by Camille Seaman, will be on view by appointment from Dec. 1, 2007, through Feb. 26, 2008, at the National Academies’ Keck Center, located at 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, D.C.
