UPY 2025

UPY 2016 Wide Angle - Commended
'Icebreaker'
Tobias Friedrich

We planned to dive in April in Greenland to specially photograph the icebergs. In spring the visibility is very goof which results from the less influence of melt water out at the coast as well as the algal bloom starts only a few weeks later in the year. A bit of the 90% of the iceberg, which supposed to be underwater, can already be seen from the surface. The water is about -2° Celsius, but at the sight of the ice during the dive, the icy temperature can quickly be forgotten. The structures of the giant are shimmering blue-greenish in the strong sunlight. The colossus reveals unexpected forms: Similar like a reef with canyons, coves and small plateaus, which extend far beyond the structures of part of the iceberg that can be seen over the water surface. In some places sharp edges like oversized axes rise from the ice and in others the ice is traversed by fine cracks that run like veins through it. Almost everywhere is a thin, only a few centimetres thick, transparent layer of ice over a solid white core that looks like snow. In these fantastic visibilities a safety line is no longer necessary, because at any time the boat can be seen from the depths, which follows the divers between the ice floes on the surface.