{"id":161365,"date":"2025-08-20T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161365\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T15:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T15:00:22","slug":"photographer-sculpts-ice-lenses-made-from-glaciers-to-capture-dreamy-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/161365\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographer Sculpts Ice Lenses Made From Glaciers to Capture Dreamy Images"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Tristan Duke takes glacial ice, left, and sculpts it into optical lenses that can be used to capture images such as the one seen on the right. <\/p>\n

Sometimes photographers are forced to rush their shot as the scene changes in front of them. But imagine if the very camera they were using was literally melting, forcing the photographer to hurry before their equipment disappears entirely. <\/p>\n

That is the challenge faced by Tristan Duke<\/a> who, among many other things, is a Los Angeles-based experimental photographer sculpting his own ice lenses made from glacial ice to capture truly unique images. <\/p>\n

Duke tells PetaPixel that he got the idea for ice lenses after seeing a Japanese ice press \u2014 a mixologist tool that shapes ice into specific shapes \u2014 in action. He immediately designed and built his own custom ice presses, specifically engineered for optics. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery ice lens is different,\u201d Duke explains. \u201cIts qualities shaped by the purity and structure of the ice. But even a single lens keeps changing as I work with it. As it melts, its focal length shifts (becoming more myopic), and new distortions begin to emerge.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Duke built a large tent that acts as a camera obscura which the ice lens is attached to. \"A<\/a>The images are often dreamy and abstract because the melting ice creates random effects.<\/p>\n

Duke enjoys this uncertainty as he is constantly having to adapt, change plans, and improvise in the field when things don\u2019t go as expected. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a kind of surrender in working this way. It becomes a collaboration with the elements \u2014 and with the glacier itself,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

While in the Arctic Duke built a large camera obscura in the form of a tent. Inside he hung an enormous 42 x 100-inch paper negative which records the image when the focused light hits it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with this giant camera in Arctic conditions was relentlessly challenging,\u201d Duke says. \u201cEvery day, I loaded nearly 200 pounds of equipment into a Zodiac [Nautic], landed on the ice, hauled everything overland to a location, set up the tent, shaped the ice lens, hung the film \u2014 and all of that just to take a single shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Fitting the ice lens. \"Two<\/a>Rolls of photographic paper. \"A<\/a>Camera obscura film photo taken on an ice lens. Taking Ice Lenses Out of the Arctic <\/p>\n

For the ice lenses to work, they actually have to be melting. If the lens is too frozen, then it will frost up. Duke was worried that when he went to the Arctic it would be too cold for his idea to bear fruit but thanks to a record heat wave when he was there, he was just about able to prevent frosting. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn a bitter twist, the project was made possible by global climate change,\u201d he says. He also dipped the ice lenses into salty seawater to encourage melting. <\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/a>Fitted ice lens. <\/p>\n

He later took his ice lenses to warmer climates, including Colorado in the wake of the state\u2019s most destructive fire ever. It was the hottest conditions he has worked in with the ice lens. <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to connect the dots between rapidly melting glaciers, megadroughts, record heatwaves, and increasingly destructive wildfires,\u201d Duke says of his work documenting the aftermath of the Marshall Fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that shoot, it was over 100 degrees, and inside the tent camera, it felt like an oven. The lenses were melting so quickly, I could barely take a single shot before they disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>The aftermath of the Marshall Fire in Colorado. \"A<\/a>The Calf Canyon\/Hermits Peak Fire in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

That connecting the dots, as Duke puts it, is a big reason for embarking upon the project in the first place. The literal melting of his ice lenses is a poetic metaphor for disappearing glaciers<\/a> \u2014 an issue the world knows about but one that Duke says people struggle to truly process. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve collaborated with many climate scientists on this project, and they all tell me the same thing: we know what\u2019s happening, the science is clear \u2014 but society isn\u2019t acting fast enough to make the necessary changes,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis, I believe, is where art comes in. We urgently need new perspectives and new stories \u2014 ones that can shift how we see ourselves in relation to the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>As well as wildfires, Duke has also photographed an eclipse with a melting ice lens which \u201ccreates strange aberrations.\u201d \"A<\/a>Mojave Wind Farm in California. A Song of Ice and Fire <\/p>\n

The work that Duke is doing appears to be entirely novel. But there is historical precedent: \u201cThe earliest reference to an ice lens comes from the Chinese alchemist Zhang Hua, who, in the year 290, described using a ball of ice to focus sunlight and ignite mugwort tinder \u2014 much like using a magnifying glass to start a fire,\u201d Duke says. <\/p>\n

Throughout history, ice lenses have been associated with kindling flames \u2014 sparking fascination as to how ice can create fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s curious is that in every historical reference I\u2019ve found, the ice lens is always used as a tool for making fire,\u201d Duke says. \u201cThe alchemical idea of uniting opposites \u2014 fire born from ice \u2014 surely made it symbolically irresistible, even mystically significant. Still, it\u2019s surprising that ice lens photography didn\u2019t emerge sooner.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Blurry<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Wherever Duke goes with his camera obscura, he likes to use glacial ice from a local source. However, he has collaborated with the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility (NSF-ICF) for some projects which provided him with sections of ice cores to shape into lenses. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor much of the fire-related work, I used clear ice made from local water sources \u2014 emphasizing the connection between fire, drought, and falling water tables in the American West. I often travel with a cooler bag, and in case you\u2019re wondering\u2014yes, you can carry ice on an airplane. As long as it\u2019s fully frozen, it counts as a solid.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Duke standing in the Main Archvies at the NSF-ICF in Lakewood, Colorado. <\/p>\n

Duke hopes to continue shooting with ice and is currently working on a series focused on disappearing alpine glaciers, particularly those in California\u2019s Sierra Nevada. He is also hoping to make it to Antarctica one day. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I\u2019m eager to shift my focus toward other experimental projects\u2014designing new cameras, creating optical installations, and developing other devices of wonder,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n

Duke has just released a book, A Brief History of Ice Lenses, Tristan Duke: Glacial Optics, Radius Books, Santa Fe, 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong> Photographs by Tristan Duke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tristan Duke takes glacial ice, left, and sculpts it into optical lenses that can be used to capture…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":161366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[10717,648,1032,10109,93521,1033,171,83514,5410,93522,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-161365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arctic","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-climate","12":"tag-climatechange","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-glacier","16":"tag-ice","17":"tag-icelens","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115061694621455670","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}