Experience a Tale of Endless Light, Pure Air, Blue Ice, and Penguins

Seeing penquins waiting ashore is a special moment on a Zodiac run.

Despite its frigid climate, Antarctica is fast becoming a hot spot for tourism. With a history of challenging even the most heroic explorers, what draws people to want to become a member of the “frozen chosen?” Isn’t such travel too risky and harsh for the untested? Maybe, but not for a group of fourteen intrepid travelers, most from San Miguel, who ventured there this past December.

Sallie Kravetz, photographer and digital storyteller, yielded to the call. She wanted to see giant blue green icebergs, get a glimpse of penguins in the wild, experience light-filled nights and breathe the clearest air on the planet. Now she has crafted a presentation designed to take others along for the adventure. She will be premiering her work: Antarctica: Sharing the Splendor, A Multimedia Journey at the Villa Jacaranda on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. under the auspices of Audubon de Mexico

“Having the opportunity to visit and then to share the journey is happening at a very propitious moment in the modern history of Antarctica,” says Kravetz. “Every fifty years, the world’s scientists join together to shine the spotlight on both poles and collaborate on a massive scale about current and future issues. The first project like this started in 1832. Last time around, in the fifties, it was referred to as the International Geophysical Year. This time around it’s called the International Polar Year and we are right in the middle of it now. It is dynamic and exciting”

Drawing on her background as a recently retired high school Library Media Specialist, Sallie has mined the depths of the Internet to augment her own photography to create what she refers to as a “media rich” digital story. “I think that the presentation will hold a few surprises and will be as much fun for the audience as it is informative. Of course, it is a given that you are bound to run into a few penguins.”

Sallie has been a fine arts photographer for the past thirty years. She has received critical recognition for her work in the genres of performing arts photography, particularly dance, Polaroid manipulations and, most recently, digitally produced photographs. One of her San Miguel images was selected as a prize winner by Women In Photography International. Her work has also been selected for the past two Garden Club calendars; this year for May and September. Her multimedia production experience has been honed through her work with teachers and students.

The Antarctica trip is a foray for Kravetz into the world of nature photography. “Before I went, I viewed imagery of the magnificence of the Antarctica landscape. I was smitten. I knew that one day I would have to go and try my hand, and eye, at capturing it myself.”

A native of Baltimore Md, Ms. Kravetz is a frequent visitor to San Miguel. She uses her camera to capture and convey the color, flavor and texture of what she sees as the theater of the street, particularly vibrant in San Miguel.

However, no matter whether her venue is the street or the ice, Kravetz says her guiding principle is found in the words of the poet Louise Bogan:” …in a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair, no woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart.”

Through this presentation, that is precisely what the photographer sets out to do.