Humbled by the vastness of nature, Günther Komnick captures the evanescence of the only continent hardly touched by human activity. Komnick captures too being overwhelmed by a place: Antarctica brings home the message to us that humans are mere guests on this planet, mere passers-by. We are an itinerant species that alas, consumed by self-importance, destroy the very realm in which we are but one among many, many less destructive species.
We see in these images predator and prey living side by side, albeit it warily.
   Antarctica is well documented as a crucible of the world, a pristine world where the rhythms of nature have been left unsullied, where the demands of society are irrelevant, and where human life is rendered dwarfed in the face of giant icebergs, penguins, sea lions and albatrosses to whom Antarctica is home. The social nature of rambunctious penguins is deftly portrayed, along with the deceptive slothfulness of the cumbersome sea lions.
   But it is the geomorphology of Antarctica that sets the backdrop for the drama of the residents of Antarctica, the gargantuan shapes of the ice mountains, the tricks that wind and light play on the ice. Present too is the detritus of failed human expeditions into this remote and forbidding part of our world: wrecked boats and collapsed habitations remind us that only the most intrepid need visit and that humility and respect are the most appropriate responses to Antarctica and by extension, to the planet as a whole.
   Komnick invites you with this volume of heart-felt images to join him on a rare and magical journey to a pristine part of our home.