Photo: Stuart Robertson
When New Zealand photographer Stuart Robertson broke his leg, it gave him the opportunity to go through the thousands of photos he had taken in Antarctica.
He had been to Antarctica twice - using the lens of his grandfather's Leica camera to take photographs.
The best of them, chosen for the shapes and colour they capture, now form new exhibitions 'The Colours of Antarctica' which have just opened in Melbourne and Sydney.
Speaking to Saturday Morning, Robertson said being in "50 shades of white" made the eyes and brain start to wonder about things.
"I started seeing shapes and colours that I hadn’t really seen before and gradually started to train my lens on those and ended up with a collection of works focused around the colours of Antarctica."
Robertson said he felt blessed to have the opportunity to have not only exhibitions but a book about his travels to Antarctica.
Using his grandfather's old camera allowed him to mentally transport himself back to the days of early explorers who did not have a lot to work with.
He said he "loved" the opportunity to have that equipment and be connected to another generation while there.
While much of Antarctica was seas of white, there were mount pools and pressure ridges filled with algae of different colours, Robertson said.
Having a blue sky also changed what was below it.
"The more you look, the more shades you see in white and you have reflections and shadows, there’s 24 hours of light as the sun circles above you during the summer season and your eye gets trained into certain things, but it’s amazing being in a place, you know, there’s no green, there’s no orange, there’s no red, there’s no purple, there’s no smell.
"When all those things are taken away as I was saying before, something else comes in and replaces them and that sort of opens your eye.”
