Archive for the ‘News’ Category

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’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.

           Polar Explorations is a deep immersive look behind the curtain of Sebastian’s seminal expeditions across the Earth’s biggest bodies of ice. It                       chronicles his 2009 North Pole expedition on skis with partner Keith Heger, which was featured in the acclaimed film Into the Cold (2011). The book also    covers Sebastian and partner Eric McNair-Landry’s record setting crossing of the Greenland ice sheet from South to North on skis and kites, a distance of 2300km. Finally, it takes a deep look at Antarctica’s immense desert which Sebastian crossed again with McNair-Landry, an adjusted distance of over 4,000 kilometers. The men opened a new root linking the East coast to the West cost via the Pole of Inaccessibility and the South Pole, visiting areas that had never, before theirs, seen a human footprint. 

Polar Explorations is the winner of the 2022 Independent Book Publisher Book of the Year (Nature).

“A breathtaking glimpse of Antarctica.” – The Times of London.

NEW RELEASE: This fall, Rizzoli Books published Sebastian’s latest monogram. ANTARCTICA: Thee Waking Giant (2020) features never before seen photographs gathered during Sebastian’s Antarctica expeditions, both in the coastal and interior region of the least known continent on Earth. If the coast teems with life, both indigenous and migratory, the interior is a white desert where life has not existed for more than 30 million years.

Once you leave the coast, on the way to the interior, sheer mountain faces are progressively swallowed by the rising ice sheet. The last of the nunataks announce the end of the glacier and start of the plateau, extending for thousands of miles. With only ice and sky, the vistas are surprisingly diverse. While the plateau may seem like a monotonous blanket of white, “in the months that I spent there, I can honestly say that no two days have looked alike,” says Sebastian. “In this binary environment, which had never, until mine, seen a human footprint, it is the subtle variation of surface cover, or the way the sky paints the clouds or the wind shapes the ice that gives each day its own distinct identity.”

Thank you Leonardo DiCaprio for providing a beautifully worded foreword for this volume. Sebastian’s writing gives a detailed view of Antarctica’s historic to its scientific relevance, and its role in redefining global economies. The book, and all the expeditions it covers, is entirely carbon neutral thanks to Climate Partner©; while a portion of the profit will benefit the NGO Amazon Watch to protect the rainforest.

You can find ANTARCTICA: The Waking Giant anywhere fine books are sold, or visit here to find a retailer near you.

“From his Antarctic expeditions, we discover Copeland’s magnificent visual diary of astonishing imagery of the least explored places in the world!” – GQ Magazine

“A work of strident beauty illustrating humanity’s most urgent cause, climate change.” – Cocoeco Magazine

– STAY UPDATED TO SEBASTIAN’S ACTIVITIES –

Hello! If have landed on this site looking for Sebastian’s historical expedition activities, you are in the right place.

If, however, you are surprised by the date of the latest blog and are looking for more current information, you may want to visit one of these additional sites:

The Last Great March details Sebastian and Mark’s crossing of the Simpson desert in 2016 and failed attempt at the North Pole in 2017

Sebastian Copeland Fine Art details Sebastian’s photographic activities and currently features his major public exhibition in Paris on the gates of the Luxembourg building.

Thanks for your interest!

– RESTEZ INFORMÉ(E) DES ACTIVITÉS DE SEBASTIAN –

Bonjour!
Si vous visitez ce site en espérant trouver des informations sur les aventures de Sebastian, vous êtes à la bonne adresse!

Cependant, si vous êtes surpris(e) par la date des derniers blogs, et vous cherchez des informations plus récentes, vous pouvez visiter les sites suivants:

The Last Great March couvre la traversée du desert du Simpson en Australie en 2016 ainsi que la tentative frustrée pour le pôle nord sans support.

Sebastian Copeland Fine Art est les site dédié aux activités photographique de Sebastian est figure son exposition importante sur les grilles des jardins du Luxembourg à Paris.

Merci de votre soutien!

FROM POLE TO POLE – A VANISHING WORLD on the gates of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris September 2018 to January 2019

Sebastian was awarded one of the world’s most prestigious outdoor exhibit by the French Sénat. From September 15, 2018 to January 13, 2019, an estimated four million people visited the exhibit on the Gates of the Luxembourg gardens in Paris. 82 large panels displayed Sebastian’s polar images with an urgent message of warning: from the North Pole to Greenland and Antarctica, the ice is melting at accelerated rates, and will be re-drawing the maps of our world within this century. The exhibit was officially launched at the Sénat on September 19, 2018 among many politicians and 33 new outlets. The exhibit was supported by a robust press campaign on all the major networks and in print. You can visit the exhibit virtually on the official site here.

On November 16 in Berlin, Sebastian received one of Germany most iconic award: the Bambi is the German equivalent to the America Oscar except for the variety of recipients, and the second largest live viewership globally. Sebastian was chosen in the “Our Earth” category, following in the illustrious steps of Jane Goodall and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Broadcast to an audience of 10+ Million live viewers, Sebastian delivered a searing seven minutes speech (interrupted by standing ovations) denouncing the general apathy regarding the alarming breakdown of the Earth’s ecosystems. You can hear the speech here.

MEN’S JOURNAL’S WORLD’S MOST ADVENTUROUS MEN LIST!

In its April 2017 issue, Men’s Journal named Sebastian one of the World’s 25 Most Adventurous Men of the last 25 years. It is an incredible honor considering some of the other names on that list. On a personal note, however, Sebastian says: “I am humbled by this inclusion. I feels strongly that there are names whose omission is notable, and should have been included even ahead of my own. In Polar exploration, for instance, it is hard to think of someone more deserving than Børge Ousland, one of my personal heroes. Still, it is nice to be included and always appreciated when the trips, successful or not, get the nod. So thanks a bunch, Men’s Journal, this pushes me to do better!”

World’s 25 Most Addventurous Men of the Last 25 Years

A Sled dog may not be the best protection against bear, but they provide early warning!

Sebastian was interviewed by Leonard Lopate for WNYC radio in New York on April 22, 2016. They discussed Sebastian’s new book Arctica: The Vanishing North and the role the ice plays on the balance of the planet. You can find the podcast of the interview here.

Book Launch Event in Los Angeles to Celebrate the Release of Sebastian’s New Book

October 29, 2015 — Los Angeles, California

The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills was host to the Los Angeles launch of Sebastian’s new book Arctica: The Vanishing North. With a mix of environmental personality and celebrities, Sebastian spoke on the changing Arctic captured and in support of Global Green USA.  Los Angeles über environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr., Billy Zane, Orlando Bloom, Peter Mensah, Veronica Ferres, Thomas Kretchsmann and LA’s Chief Sustainability Officer Matt Petersen were some of the many who showed up in support of the book’s launch.

Here Sebastian talks about perceptions on climate, his cousin Orlando and the new book.

Billy Zane speaks eloquently about climate change perceptions and gives a nod:

Peter Mensah shares nice words and why he cares: