New exhibition displays photography from Arctic expeditions 90 years apart

Wake – a voyage to Louise Boyd Land, a new exhibition by artist and researcher Anne Lydiat showcasing the beauty and shift in polar landscapes, is on display in the Director’s Gallery.

The exhibition features a selection of enchanting photographs from Anne’s 2018 expedition to Louise Boyd Land in the Arctic circle, where she traced the route of pioneering American explorer Louise Arner Boyd’s 1931/33 expeditions, alongside photography taken by Boyd in the same locations 90 years earlier.

Louise Boyd made seven expeditions into Arctic waters, filming and photographing topography, measuring ocean depths, and collecting plant specimens. Her use of an aerial mapping camera to document the glacial landscape enabled her to produce a mosaic of high-quality photographs that served as the basis for new detailed maps of the region. On her 1931 expedition she discovered an unknown glacier and previously uncharted land at the head of Ice Fiord subsequently named the Louise Glacier and Louise Boyd Land.

As a homage to Boyd, in 2018 Anne led an expedition (using Boyd’s original charts) to Louise Boyd Land at the head of Ice Fiord, located in the uninhabited and relatively unexplored National Park region of East Greenland. Sailing with her were a multi-disciplinary team of artists, filmakers, scientists and experienced sailors who produced photographs, drawings, and audio and visual recordings. They also undertook marine micro and macro surveys by collecting water samples and mapping the extent of plastic pollution in this pristine part of the world.

Anne Lydiat has exhibited both nationally and internationally for over 30 years. To see more of her work, visit www.annelydiat.com. 

Society Fellows and Members can see the exhibition on weekdays between 10.00am and 5.00pm, excluding from Monday 25 December 2023 to Monday 1 January 2024 inclusive, when the Society will be closed. The exhibition will be on display until mid-January.