Ethereal Blue

“Photographer Steve Mandel recently ventured to Antarctica where he captured breathtaking images of glaciers. His frosty shots are a unique twist on landscape photography—instead of presenting one view of the icebergs, the California-based creative shot a split view in a single frame. Half of the picture shows the glacier above water, while the other part illustrates what lies beneath.

‘This was my first [time] shooting above and below shots,’ Mandel tells us in an email. ‘I was inspired by some images I had seen taken by a National Geographic photographer.’ He’s fascinated by the form, color, and physics of icebergs, and explains what makes them so special. ‘The top of the glacier is white because it is new snow, that over time, compresses. The beautiful blue color in the ice is older ice in which the air has been partially compressed out.’ This delicate balance produces images that often have…