ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Hornstrandir is Iceland’s Northernmost peninsula and the most remote place in all of Europe. It is also home to the Arctic fox Blue Morph, where I spent five days last winter photographing this elusive creature. It was bitterly cold, with temperatures getting as low as -20 degrees centigrade as biting arctic snow blizzards cut through the inhospitable and uninhabited region. It is in such conditions that the Arctic Fox has learnt to survive. I monitored the movements of the fox, spending much of the time flat on my stomach to get eye level, observing in particular how the fox survived the bleak and difficult winter. I noted how it would scramble and slide down the snow covered cliff face when the tide was out, scavenging for whatever was washed up on the rocky beach. I noted how it would hunker down protecting its face from the bitter North winds, but chose to fight against the milder South winds, using whatever shelter or overhang it could find as protection. For this shot the fox chose to fight the winds in its search for food.
I wanted my image to portray the resilience, hardiness and guile of the rare Arctic Fox Blue Morph in its thick winter coat, surviving and adapting to one of the harshest places on Earth.

back to gallery