Frozen In Time

Richard Hamilton Smith began making photos of ice 50 years ago near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. From ice he learned how to work with form, pattern, texture, and light in his photography, noting that its variations in shapes, surfaces, and transparency make it an excellent teacher. To this day, he finds ice fascinating and has continued to include it in his work.

This collection features images taken across the northern part of Minnesota, from the Boundary Waters to Lake Superior’s North Shore and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Smith focuses on the places with the clearest waters, where face down on the ice all one can imagine is a sea of bubbles.