21 frames · Baikal · 2016–2018

Breath of Ice

In winter, Baikal does not simply freeze — it breathes. Even what looks perfectly still is under tension every second: the ice cracks, shifts, expands, and tightens again — sometimes with a sound like a gunshot.

This series was shot across several winters, up close and from afar, in still light and in storm — an attempt to see that breathing at every scale it takes.

From a lake holding a fifth of the planet's fresh water, to a fracture the width of a hair. From the silence of reflected sunset light to the sound of ice breaking underfoot. There is form here, and there is texture; there is a human figure caught inside that scale, and there is pure abstraction, where the ice stops being recognizable and becomes only light and line.

Each frame looks at Baikal differently — but behind all of them is the same rhythm: inhale and exhale, tension and rest.

View the series

Clear black Baikal ice crossed by white cracks, a rocky shore in the distance, Uzury, Olkhon Island — 01 / 21

A rocky cape and mirror-smooth ice on Lake Baikal under streaks of cloud — 02 / 21

A ridge of ice blocks along a fracture in the Baikal ice under a blue sky with clouds — 03 / 21

Layered white cracks inside dark ice on Lake Baikal, close-up — 04 / 21

Turquoise Baikal ice stretching to the horizon, divided by white bands of snow — 05 / 21

Blue Baikal ice ruled with straight intersecting cracks, close-up — 06 / 21

White air bubbles frozen into Baikal ice, close-up — 07 / 21

Baikal ice with a blue and golden sheen and fine pale cracks, close-up — 08 / 21

A shoreline rock on Olkhon Island coated in blue splash ice and icicles — 09 / 21

Trees on the shore of Lake Baikal encased in splash ice — 10 / 21

Cracks and bubbles radiating outwards inside Baikal ice, close-up — 11 / 21

A thin clear slab of ice standing like a sail among the hummocks of Lake Baikal — 12 / 21

A person in a red jacket with a camera beside a cliff hung with huge icicles on frozen Lake Baikal — 13 / 21

A skater in red on clear Baikal ice, reflected in the surface, with rocks in the distance — 14 / 21

An ice grotto on Lake Baikal: icicles on the vault, turquoise ice at the entrance and a person in the distance — 15 / 21

A clear chunk of ice on smooth blue Baikal ice against an orange dawn sky — 16 / 21

An ice-covered cape and the Baikal ice in the light of the setting sun — 17 / 21

The rocky island of Ogoy on frozen Lake Baikal, with drifting snow sweeping across the clear ice — 18 / 21

Hummocks of clear ice slabs on Lake Baikal under a pink sunset sky — 19 / 21

Clear slabs of Baikal ice in close-up, with the dawn sky showing through — 20 / 21

The Milky Way over clear, cracked Baikal ice at night, with a dark rock on the right, Uzury, Olkhon Island — 21 / 21

How the series was made

Several winters, 2016–2018
Frost down to −45 °C
50 frames in the edit — 21 in the series

The frozen plain of Lake Baikal netted with white cracks to the horizon, seen from a rocky summit on Olkhon Island (not included in the series) — Contact sheet: 50 frames in the edit. As you scroll, those that didn’t make the series fade away — 21 remain.

Shamanka Rock on Olkhon Island and the ice of the Maloye More strait under a pink sky (not included in the series) — Contact sheet: 50 frames in the edit. As you scroll, those that didn’t make the series fade away — 21 remain.

About the series

The series was shot on frozen Lake Baikal, on the ice around Olkhon Island, in 2016–2018. The work was done at temperatures from −30 to −45 °C, by day and by night, in clear weather and in snowstorms. 21 frames form a single sequence. It begins with clear black ice, moves through cracks, bubbles and close-up ice textures, sculptural forms and wave-spray ice on the cliffs, ice caves with a human figure inside, sunrise and sunset on the ice and a storm, and ends with a starry sky over the lake.

The story of the Olkhon expedition, with a night shoot at Cape Uzury and frames that did not make it into the series, is told in the Journal.

Works from the series available as prints

A lone tree in pink morning mist, central Russia

Next projectMiddle Light ← All projects