Rareș Beșliu, a photographer in love with nature and animal life, starts the photographic project North of words, a parallel between the Arctic regions and the impact of climate change felt in Romania. He went on a series of expeditions to the coldest areas of the Planet – Svalbard, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago – and his stories and photos, collected under the Jurnal de Nord hat, will be constantly published on ertudin.ro and in ” Weekend Truth”. More information can be found on www.lanord.ro and www.raresbesliu.com.
Foggy mornings in Greenland. PHOTO: Rareș Beșliu
DAY 8. Monday, August 14
I woke up eager to look out the window, to see what scenery I have from the ship. I think it's easy to guess what awaited me. Exactly, the fog!
Last night's thoughts did not give me peace too quickly, and this morning, when I saw that everything was white around, I amused myself at the mischief that crossed my mind. I remembered all the talk about how capricious the weather is here, how everything changes in a split second, how the fog envelops the waters… And I interpreted it as some kind of nature protection. If we don't care about her, build airports and dock cruise ships in the harbor every day, then she has to defend herself somehow, right? And then he gives us unstable weather to make it harder for us to fly and sail. At least make our journeys longer and more difficult.
Houses frozen in time. PHOTO: Rareș Beșliu
So it was time to stay indoors and edit. With so many departures, I don't know when I will be able to go through all the images.
I stopped in Sisimiut, where I stayed for about two hours, long enough to photograph a crow. I find it incredible how well these birds adapt to any corner of the world. I think their intelligence is proof that it can be done. What's more, they're also black and stand out easily among all the white animals in the Arctic – the polar bear, the polar fox, the polar owl, the seagulls, the chira, the rabbit. In Romania I wouldn't have stopped to photograph it, but here I was attracted by the contrast of the raven with the snow, and its huge wings seemed to want to embrace the iceberg in its arms.
But the fog has its charm and… its rainbows. Today I saw for the third time in my life the fogbow, that white rainbow that I also found at the top of the world, in Svalbard. Then he fascinated me so much that I thought I was seeing him for the first time, although we had met once before in the Delta, on a morning so foggy that the pelicans almost collided with each other. I hope to see him in Canada and to become my companion in all expeditions.
The flight caught in an image. PHOTO: Rareș Beșliu
Also today I took two photos that prove to me once again that good images are obtained more with luck than with a lot of patience and long waits. One of them is with a cloud full of sun in the middle of dark and sad mountains. It was as if he gave them life and I thought that this is what the soul of nature looks like. The next frame was also one of a moment, as the boat rounded a seemingly mundane iceberg, and the moment we reached the other side of it, the light split it in two. That's how I got half of the white-white iceberg and the other half a sky blue. I think it looks spectacular, but at the same time it's one of the few photos I can imagine in black and white. I also gave it the title: “eclipse of reality”, because it makes me think of the fight between good and evil, light and darkness, truth and lies. We see what we want, we only hear what we like. And we choose the side of the iceberg that suits us.
He took the photo from the deck of the ship, where I sat and observed, without running from place to place. It reminded me of life on the icebreaker, which seems so long ago, even though it wasn't even three weeks ago. Time has been so intense for me this “polar” summer and I can't believe that the second expedition is already over.
Greenland is a paradise. And definitely the most spectacular place I have ever seen.
