Stunning images from the ends of the world. Plus, what Russian-bombed Syria looks like; the Molotov cocktails hitting Russian invaders; the joys of curling; this week’s Nat Geo News Quiz
|  | Saturday, March 12, 2022 | | | | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY ESTHER HORVATH
| | By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences
Her out-of-office email reads, “I am traveling between the two poles for scientific expeditions and have very limited or no access to email.”
Such is life for photographer Esther Horvath, who has been on more than a dozen polar missions to document scientists working to better understand the changing polar regions. She has photographed researchers prepping to be trapped in Arctic ice for a year, a science base where life is anything but lonely; and observed how to grow plants in space by visiting the coldest place on Earth.
Most recently, she was aboard the icebreaker (pictured above) off Antarctica that dramatically discovered Ernest Shackleton’s pioneering polar vessel last weekend, entombed two miles below the icy surface.
Work near the poles is hard. Negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 24 hours of darkness make using her cameras and lights difficult, and the crew is always on guard for polar bears.
“Respecting their place,” as Esther puts it, “and keeping them and us safe.”
Despite the challenges, each expedition pushes Esther to be present and open to the idea that you may “not be able to plan everything as wanted.” A good lesson for a photographer; a great lesson for us all.
And always, the pull of poles is strong: “My body is back to civilization while my mind is still floating on a cloud of incredible memories, made in the polar darkness on the frozen ocean.”
Read the full story about the discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance here—and watch exclusive video. Below, see Esther’s work on previous expeditions.
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| | Another type of endurance: Esther joined the longest and largest Arctic expedition in history for this Nat Geo story—and training was intense for some of the harshest conditions on Earth. Pictured above, a trainee practices swimming into a harness and being hoisted into the air. | | | |
| | More than potatoes: How do you prepare to grow food on Mars? For this 2019 Nat Geo story, Esther accompanied nine scientists working on this question at a German research facility on an Antarctic ice shelf, reachable only during the summer by icebreaker or plane. “It’s the closest place to space on Earth,” she told us. In a greenhouse, leafy Swiss chard, peppery arugula, and fresh herbs thrived. Pictured above, geophysicist Josefine Stakemann harvested cucumbers. | | | |
| ‘Life is not lonely’: That was the headline of Esther’s Nat Geo story from a remote Danish military outpost in the northeastern tip of Greenland—575 miles from the North Pole. One summer night was so warm the soldiers sat outside shirtless: one strumming a guitar; others reading. The Arctic is the fastest-heating place on Earth, and the outpost conducts climate change experiments. Pictured above, a helium-filled balloon measures air turbulence, solar and terrestrial radiation, and black carbon from the lowest layers of the atmosphere.
A postscript: On Friday, Esther departed the Endurance expedition, landing in South Georgia Island, where she planned to visit Ernest Shackleton's grave. ‘‘The strangest thing is to smell green in the air after five to six weeks of no smells at all,” she told me. ‘‘It is an incredible feeling to smell again.”
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVE WINTER, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
| | Majestic: Meet Smasher, the male in the background. That’s the name photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Steve Winter gave this young tiger that he found splashing in a watering hole in India’s Bandhavgarh National Park. Winter captured this image by slapping the automated camera trap until it stopped clicking. Both tigers in the photograph, taken in 2011, are thought to have killed people. Smasher was later put into captivity.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY KIANA HAYERI
| | Afghanistan’s young step up: When the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, the nation’s ties to foreign aid were cut. Nine million people now suffer from food insecurity. Young people like Navid Amini (standing), a medical student and aid worker, and his friend Shabir Zahid (with his back turned), are among those stepping up to provide immediate help, Nat Geo reports. In this image, the two are among those packing containers of chicken stew, bread, and fruit into plastic bags in a courtyard in Kandahar. Mohammad Kabir Hotaki (center), a chef, used to cater wedding parties but now receives more and more orders from NGOs that provide meals to poor families.
Related: Afghan women face an uncertain future
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 | | Photography is a journey, an exploration towards our unconscious, a tool of self-knowledge and personal exploration that allows us to be children again, because it gives us the ability to be amazed. For this reason, always be open and never have preconceptions or be judgmental because the only thing that connects us to the people and the stories we tell is the capacity to wonder and the openness of our heart. | | | | Tamara Merino Bloch | Documentary photographer, visual storyteller, Nat Geo Explorer
From: How women photographers access worlds hidden from men
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY B. ANTHONY STEWART, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION
| | Where curling rules: Canada has won 53 medals at world championships in curling, and the editor of our Photo of the Day feature was looking for something that said “winter sports.” Voila, this image from a curling match in Ontario, which ran in National Geographic’s December 1953 issue. “I loved the vintage-looking plaid outfits and the old brooms,” Heather Kim says. Also, “the red tones in the image went well with the other red and pink tones I was aiming for.” Curl toward it and our other recent Photo of the Day images here.
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | | | |
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