Ice and Sky

On exhibit at the Cherrydale Branch Library, August 6 – November 2 2015.

Opening reception Tuesday, Aug, 11, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. in the Cherrydale loft.

 

Artist Statement: 

The Antarctic Circle is the latitude (66°33′45.8’’) where, from any point south, the sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for 24 hours. The belief in the existence of an entire continent in the southern Polar Regions dates back to Greek theorists in 600-300 BC. First claims that something had been seen there came in the 7th Century AD. European explorers sailed as far south as 64 degrees South in the early 17th Century. James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle in 1773 and in 1774 he reached 71° 10′ S , coming within 75 miles of the Antarctic mainland without actually seeing it. By the mid-19th Century the world began to slowly realize that a mammoth continent, covered with ice, existed almost entirely within the Antarctic Circle. From the second half of the 19th Century into the early 20th Century, European and American expeditions grew in frequency, with the South Pole finally reached by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on December 14, 1911.

The photographs in this exhibition were mostly taken along the route followed by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache in 1897-99. While many preceded him, his expedition has the distinction of being the first to spend the winter in Antarctica, although that was not his plan – his ship was trapped by the ice in late February 1898 and was unable to escape until a year later.

Robin Kent is a fine arts photographer known for his dramatic images of Washington, D.C. and, more recently, unique locations such as the high altitude monarch preserves in central Mexico, night photography of the Milky Way in remote areas of Yosemite National Park, and the frozen landscapes of the Antarctic Peninsula.  

His photographs are in the collections of major corporations, local business organizations, and individual collectors.  His training has included landscape photography from the late Galen Rowell, founder of Mountain Light Photography, advanced printing techniques from Mac Holbert, a co-founder of Nash Editions, and fine arts photography at NOVA and the Smithsonian Institution.  He is President of Great Falls Studios, a consortium of 100-plus artists in Great Falls, Virginia.  He is represented by Art Matters in Glen Echo, Maryland, and by Artists Circle Fine Art in North Potomac, Maryland.