My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Lake Baikal

Russian Federation | Monday, November 7, 2011 | 5 photos

Lake Baikal, Siberia, is the deepest and oldest lake in the world. During winter it is covered with ice of almost 1 m thick, sealing its 1600 m depth of water and its more than 1.000 endemic species from the outside world.

For the last decade a collaborative project between Russia and Switzerland aims to shed light to the water dynamics of the lake. Every March, when the lake is ice covered, a group of scientists and locals get together to recover and re-install scientific instruments that monitor the depths of the South-West tip of the lake.

The conditions are hard and often people have to work barehanded at temperatures ranging from -20 C to -10 C. The equipment is primitive, a reminiscence of the Soviet Union era. With this set of pictures I want to document the effort of these people to explore one of the world’s natural wonders with a very limited budget but plenty of willpower.

I was very lucky to join the expedition last March as part of my studies and I was amazed both by the beauty of the lake and by the people working on the project. I always carry a camera on me and try to document what I experience. Every place has a story to tell, either through its people or through small details in the surroundings.

I am definitely a good and collaborative listener and an enthusiastic learner. As a physicist I am trying to understand how the world works, as an international educator I am trying to communicate with the world hidden behind the eyes of each person and as an amateur photographer I want to convey these experiences to others. I am really eager to spend time with Mr Jason Edward, learning by doing next to an expert would be an invaluable experience, something that can give to me a first taste of the professional world of photography.