10 Winters: A filmmaker in Antarctica | Anthony Powell | TEDxScottBase
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- Опубліковано 17 вер 2024
- Imagine spending months on end without seeing the sun. Photographer Anthony Powell has done exactly that, over and over again: he wintered over in Antarctica ten times. In this funny, touching and heartfelt talk, he shares some of the challenges of capturing images on the ice, and issues a challenge to us all.
Anthony Powell originally worked in Antarctica as a telecommunications engineer before becoming a full-time film maker. He has wintered over 10 times, and has now spent more time in Antarctica than anywhere other than the house he grew up in. He had to design and build a lot of his own camera equipment to withstand the harsh conditions of the deep Antarctic winters. His wife Christine, who he met and married in Antarctica, is from California.
Anthony's critically praised feature film Antarctica: A Year On Ice took over 10 years to make. It has won more than 20 international awards. He has contributed material to numerous exhibitions, films and TV shows all over the world including the US Natural History Museum, National Geographic, and Discovery, and also featured in the Emmy award winning BBC series Frozen Planet.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
This was one of my favourites. Do make the effort to find and watch his movie. A great watch with how people cope with wintering at McMurdo and the most stunning Antarctic time lapse photography you can find.
What an awesome TedX Antz. So great to see familiar faces in the audience. Thanks for your work showing the world Antarctica
Amazing film incredible photography and fascinating people. Worth watching.
Make sure to watch his film "Antarctica: A Year On Ice". It is breath taking
I discovered that film via a friend’s Netflix account (he was in the room at the time), and I was blown away the first time. I now have it on my iPod Touch and have watched it so many times in total that I completely lost count.
Do I recommend this movie? Of course!!
10:03 Whatever that is, it looked like a lightsaber at first. But around 10:10, you realize…it’s not and are still wondering what it is.
Hi. I saw on web. That u put a challenge to flat earthers to come up to Antarctica. ( I'm not sure) yet till I can fly with obstructions to see for myself. That Earth is not flat. But I saw no one can go up there as it is militarized for years now. I couldn't afford to go for a few reasons. But I'm so glad you made it home safe..
Sorry for interjecting, but primarily I wanted to correct a misconception:
The idea that Antarctica is "militarized" is a fiction - the vast majority of Antarctic programs, run by many countries, are completely divorced from their national military and are run by civilian scientific bodies. Some countries do have military resources that are equipped for work in extreme cold, so for them it makes sense to utilise that military logistical hardware (eg: cargo planes like LC-130s, C-17 Globemaster III, icebreakers like the US Coast Guard Polar Star, etc) rather than leaving them under-utilised at home.
There are no weapons in Antarctica, aside from a pistol a station leader might be allowed to use as a last resort. There is a long-standing treaty in place to override any nationalistic claims that have been made to territories - there are no borders, there are no armies or defences, no-one is allowed to plunder the mineral or biological wealth of the continent. Station crews are allowed to inspect each others stations to ensure that the Treaty is being adhered to.
The biggest threat to guard against in Antarctica is fire - if a key facility is destroyed it may force the emergency rescue of an entire station, which can be nearly impossible in Winter (depending on location) and therefore could cause mass casualties.
Thousands of people visit Antarctica each year, via many different pathways (particularly during the Austral/Southern Summer):
- Some fly over the continent on routine civilian Aurora (Australis) spotting flights (fairly cheap);
- Many cruise along the coast/fast-ice amongst the icebergs, making trips onto land and also visiting many nationalities of Antarctic stations (fairly expensive);
- Some book trips to stay at commercial civilian-run camps, like Union Glacier (quite expensive?);
- Many work in the logistical aspect of resupplying the stations and camps on the continent, whether via air (cargo planes) or by sea (ice-breakers and cargo ships) (fairly good wages due to extreme weather and work demands);
- *Many* work on Antarctic stations and camps in support roles, building, maintaining, expedition guiding, cooking, trade-work (electrical, carpentry, plumbing, etc), fire-fighting, etc (fairly good wages, again);
- Many travel to Antarctic stations, camps and elsewhere in between as part of scientific groups, to study the entirety of Antarctica and also to do science that can be done there rather than paying for "astronomically" expensive space-borne programmes (eg: line-of-sight communications with deep space instruments, IceCube neutrino detector, South Pole Telescope, Long Duration Balloons in the upper atmosphere for astronomy/physics, meteorite recovery, etc);
- I'm sure that some charter or pilot their own yachts or ships down into the Southern Ocean, heading far enough South to see icebergs and maybe visit the continent, though you'll likely have a very bad time unless it is a properly ice-rated vessel or a fully fledged ice-breaker (might get a reasonable wage to crew, or be really expensive to charter).
If you have an intense interest in seeing Antarctica for yourself, then I'd urge you to look up job postings (particularly if your own country has an Antarctic presence), and to look at what skill-sets are required or in high demand for those roles (eg: heavy vehicle qualifications, trades, etc) and try to make yourself a competitive applicant. If you contact the Antarctic Programmes and contracting companies then I'm sure they can tell you more about whether/how you can head South for work.
Alternately, if you just want to fly down with a compass (ie: am I really heading South?) and see the ice from above, then there seem to be flights from nearby countries (South America, Australia, New Zealand) on normal airlines, though I'd imagine they're advertised differently to normal commuter/transit flights, and they are probably priced differently as a they are of the luxury sight-seeing variety.
One thing I can almost guarantee - if you do make it to Antarctica you'll fall in love with it and want to protect its pristine beauty as much as the rest of us :)