Inspired as a child by the adventures of Jacques Cousteau, German photographer Tobias Friedrich feels right at home underwater. Since 2007 he's been photographing his adventures, making a name for himself as a top underwater photographer. Moving from tropical locations to the arctic, Friedrich has seen it all but nothing quite prepared him for the sight of an iceberg from below.
During a trip to Greenland, Friedrich took the time to get an up-close and personal view of these icy mammoths. With a diver next to the iceberg for scale, it's possible to appreciate their incredible size. Friedrich's photographs also present an opportunity to survey the various shapes, sizes, and textures of the icebergs. While some are relatively smooth underneath, most show signs of the break from the glacier and mottled pocks as the ice is slowly melted away into the water.
Floating in the blue water, these icebergs emit a sense of quiet power. And with just a fraction of their mass visible from above, the true beauty of these giants only becomes evident when one looks below. For Friedrich, the view was surprising as well. “The most unexpected part was the iceberg itself,” he shared with My Modern Met. “We dived on several icebergs in Greenland and drilled a hole next to it, but we never knew how it looked from the downside until we actually got into the water and down to the iceberg.”
The underwater photographer hopes that these powerful images will help raise awareness about the effects of global warming. As a frequent visitor to Greeland, Friedrich has first-hand knowledge of its impact, as it's causing the country's ice to melt earlier with each passing year.
Underwater photographer Tobias Friedrich took a unique look at the underside of Greenland's icebergs.
