Pictures from the End of the World, by Amado Becquer Casaballe
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires 
on 01.14.08
Uruguayan photographer Amado Becquer Casaballe spent a month on the Almirante Irizar Argentine icebreaker, traveling through the most southern seas of the planet (past the Polar Antarctic Circle) until the Belgrano 2: the country’s permanent investigation base at Antarctica. It’s a trip the icebreaker makes only once a year to change the base’s personnel.
During his voyage, Becquer Casaballe lived eternal days, trespassed ice seas, was at 14º below 0 temperature and 35º below 0 thermal sensation (inside the icebreaker, of course), passed through a scary 'whale factory' that functioned between 1911 and 1934 at the Deception Island (talk about a proper name), saw white crosses cemeteries that remembered the fallen in the area, and managed to manipulate his camera with huge gloves.
That way, he could photograph this ice desert capturing images that show its peacefulness and beauty, now endangered for the world’s warming. The above shot shows a church inside an ice cave at the Belgrano 2 base.
See more pictures and the photographer’s words in the extended. ::Via Argentina.ar
The whole set of photographs can be see at this gallery from the site Fotomundo. In an article in the same magazine, Amado Becquer Casaballe describes the trip and shares his feelings during it (in Spanish).
“The pain that the gelid temperatures produce in the face and hands, the tiredness from climbing up and down the stairs to go to the different decks, the dialogues at the Command Bridge, and the crew’s enthusiasm, are an indelible memory. This is why the texts and images are so little compared with the reality of what I lived,” he concludes. ::Amado Becquer Casaballe bio (in Spanish)
Fluorescent-like ice at the Laurie Island, at Orcadas del Sur.
More ice at the Weddell sea.
The icebreaker in action at the Weddell sea.
Grey ice broken by the ship.
Ice floe rests drifting on the sea.
A cute sea wolf playing around.
A cemetery that reminds the fallen in the area.
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Nice job Paula. I just love the visuals on this one.
my goodness i feel peti on the coming years for those who are younger than me.
but anyway the things you've share or get fetured on the internet where so amazing
keep on spreading a very excellent phots