Last night, Sebastian gave the opening remarks at the Xposure international photography festival in Sharjah, UAE in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi and the delegation of some of the world’s biggest names in photography, including such legends as war photographers James Nachtwey and Don McCullin, and portrait masters Greg Gorman and Martin Schoeller.

Speaking to a packed auditorium, Sebastian address the grave contentious human disregard for the preservation of Earth’s ecosystems, pointing to the loss of ice at the poles, but also the infiltrations of micro plastics in the heart of Antarctica. Sebastian also addressed the growing threat to the truth facilitated by the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence, and how in a short order, we will no longer rely on our eyes for the truth. “A photo is worth a thousand words will soon be challenged by a thousand lies,” he proclaimed. But photographers, in spite of the temptation of sophisticated technology, must remain the custodians of the truth. You can watch Sebastian’s speech here.

Sebastian also had a large exhibit at this year’s Exposure called The Vanishing. It features 35 large prints of his most iconic polar works, and a recent series of Inuit hunters portraits shot in northern Greenland over the last three years.

Sebastian will give a talk tomorrow on his approach to shooting the frozen world and its inhabitants, including Nature’s architecture. “I shoot icebergs as I would people,” he says. “In fact, the ice has a life cycle that isn’t so different from our own. Ice is born, it interacts, it travels, the weaker fade early while the rest eventually meet their fate in the form of icebergs, as they melt to the ocean, feeding the birth of the next ice. It’s beautiful!”

If you are in the UEA, please stop by!

Sebastian gave the opening remarks at the opening of the 2025 Xposure photo festival in the UAE

Sebastian was named Photographer of the Year for his book THE ARCTIC

Last night, Sebastian was named the 2024 International Photography Awards’ Photographer of the Year in the book category for his latest monogram: The Arctic: A Darker Shade of White (Rizzoli).

The IPA’s ceremony took place in Athens, Greece this year, honoring outstanding photography from around the world. Sebastian accepted the award in person. In his acceptance speech, he humbly thanked the jury, noting that he shared the award with every individual who commits to bettering our relationship with our host planet. “I am merely accepting this award on behalf of our beautiful planet, whose voice I have committed the last thirty-five years to amplify,” he noted. “There is a saying in my field: if you want to know where the world is headed in the next thirty years, you need look no further than the ice. We have been saying this for thirty years.”

Sebastian  received this honor twice before: in 2007 for his first book Antarctica: The Global Warning and again in 2015 for The Arctic: The Vanishing North.

Sebastian accepts the Photographer of the Year award for his latest book from the 2024 IPA in Athens, Greece on November 23, 2024.

Sebastian’s latest book on the Arctic covers over 20 years of immersive journeys across the northernmost latitudes. The Arctic: A Darker Shade of White (Rizzoli) is the third and final installment of Sebastian’s Polar trilogy comprising of Antarctica: The Waking Giant (winner of the IPA’s 2020 Photographer of the Year) and Polar Explorations: To the Ends of the Earth (2022). The Arctic features a foreword by legendary primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall. Alaska, Norway, Canada, the Arctic Sea and Greenland–which he crossed from South to North on skis and kites–all of these regions are covered in this epic anthology and instant classic. The book gives prominence to the vast floating ice desert, the roof of the world. Sebastian reached the North Pole on foot with partner Keith Heger in 2009, and aborted a second mission there in 2017 (those expeditions are all chronicled in the pages of this website).
The book is available globally wherever fine books are sold, and can also be found on Amazon.com.

The Arctic made the coveted New York Times’ Holiday Gift Guide 2024, as well as the New York Post’s 38 Best Books to Gift for Christmas 2024. It has been reviewed in more than 100 newspapers and magazines globally.

“The award-winning photographer and environmentalist Sebastian Copeland has spent decades exploring the outermost reaches of the planet. In The Arctic: A Darker Shade of White (which includes a foreword by Jane Goodall), he sounds the alarm for climate change, while also reminding us of the astonishing large-scale beauty of those landscapes and their animal inhabitants.” — The New York Times Holiday Gift Guide

“Copeland nabbed Photographer of the Year honors at the International Photography Awards for this stunning look at rugged northern landscapes. The esteemed Jane Goodall provides the foreword.” — The New York Post

“Through his hauntingly beautiful images, Sebastian brings the beauty and mystery of this frozen universe into our homes and into our hearts. And makes us fall in love.” — Dr. Jane Goodall – Zoologist

Sebastian Copeland’s The Arctic: A Darker Shade of White (Rizzoli). Foreword by Dr. Jane Goodall.