Dramatic, harsh, and brutally cold scenes were captured by Luc Roymans. Here, we recall his photography trip to one of Earth’s most dramatic landscapes.
“Scoresby Sund is probably the most desolate and quiet place I’ve ever been,” photographer Luc Roymans tells me. “Zero pollution, no light pollution—a very pristine location. I’ve been to some remote places in the past, but I’ve never seen anything so completely ‘clean’ as this was. I remember the silence, apart from the cracking ice, and the clean and clear air. . . .”
Scoresby Sund, the largest fjord system on the planet, is home to an astonishing array of wildlife. It’s home to Arctic foxes, musk oxen, seals, Greenland sharks, and the ever-elusive narwhal.
But, more than anything, Roymans had come here to see the icebergs—thousands of them.
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And these icebergs are colossal—several times the size of a large boat.
“The images don’t do the size any justice at all,” the artist explains. Due to the size of the icebergs, Roymans’s ship kept a safe distance. “When they flip over, they do it quite abruptly and very violently,” he warns.
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Fjord Photography in the Fall
Roymans visited Scoresby Sund in September. Traveling on a ship called the Rembrandt van Rijn, he lived aboard for about ten days. The journey was a birthday gift for the photographer, organized by his friend and fellow nature photographer Yves Adams.
In autumn, the weather is warmer, sparing the photographer the brutal cold that would settle in over the following months. The time of year also made travel easier. The thawing of the sea ice meant the Rembrandt van Rijn could move freely across Scoresby Sund.
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How Roymans Photographs Ice
Roymans traveled light, selecting a Nikon D850 camera and an 80-400mm zoom lens to photograph many of the icebergs he encountered. The telephoto range meant he could get “close” to those faraway icebergs, capturing their exquisite details and textures.
The lens, known for its versatility, is also light enough to handhold. Roymans found no need for a tripod. “I used a small and mobile setup,” the artist admits. “I like being quick on my feet.”
Roymans adjusted his exposure settings manually, while keeping an eye on the histogram to make sure no details were lost. The diffused, even light at Scoresby Sund in autumn made for generous conditions, day after day.
“We had a lot of overcast days, so the light was perfect basically all the time. You don’t want harsh, direct sunlight when shooting delicate subjects like ice.”
Roymans, who is also an interior photographer, remembers looking for abstract, graphic scenes through a telephoto lens. You can see where the wind and water have slowly etched ephemeral shapes upon the ice.
In the evenings, the sun lit up the clouds in shades of orange and salmon pink. Sometimes thick fog descended, transforming the landscape into a scene from a watercolor painting.
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Observing Climate Change in Real Time
For those ten days, the Rembrandt van Rijn became their home. “We slept on our ship and traveled non-stop throughout Scoresby Sund,” Roymans remembers. “It’s extremely remote. I don’t remember passing any other tourists there at any point.”
During breaks, they warmed up by sipping on coffee with hot chocolate—a combination the photographer tried (and loved) for the first time in Greenland.
While in the area, they also visited Ittoqqortoormiit, a small and isolated village close to Scoresby Sund. Surrounded by a picturesque landscape and dotted with brightly colored houses, Ittoqqortoormiit is home to only about 370 people.
For decades, the people of Ittoqqortoormiit survived by hunting on the sea ice. Their future is uncertain though, as that ice melts earlier in the year due to climate change.
Now, younger people struggle to find work. Incomes are dwindling and resources are scarce. Some of those colorful houses have been abandoned. Once young people leave, they rarely come back.
For all the beauty he encountered in Greenland, Roymans also experienced a profound sense of loss during that visit.
As the photographer took in the pristine wilds of Scoresby Sund, the decline of glaciers and the plight of the Arctic remained in the back of his mind. The melting of Greenland’s glaciers contributes significantly to sea level rise globally.
Changes in the Arctic aren’t all that remote and far away there. They affect us all, contributing to more severe weather and endangering coastal communities across the world.
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Leave No Trace Photo Tourism
As a nature photographer, Roymans follows the rule “take nothing but pictures, and leave nothing but footprints.” In Scoresby Sund—a place so untouched he didn’t encounter any other visitors—that guideline became especially important.
“Ethical guidelines could not be strict enough when visiting vulnerable places,” the artist says. In recent years, his belief that photographers should be stewards of the environment—not just documentarians and witnesses—has only strengthened.
Now, it has been a little over five years since Roymans’s trip to Scoresby Sund. His photographs are a love letter to a place as fragile as it is awe-inspiring. He still daydreams about the Arctic, and the memory of those hulking icebergs lingers in his consciousness.
Beyond the silence and the crisp air, what he recalls most vividly are the colors. “Blue, blue, and more blue,” glistening in the soft sunlight and extending as far as the eye could see.
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Browse more work by Luc Roymans over at his Offset portfolio, and check out his nature photography website and interior photography website for inspiration.
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