I’ve been photographing the World Ice Sculpting Championships in Fairbanks for 15 years. Throughout this time, many amazing sculptures have been created by artists from all over the world. One in particular stands out to me, and the numerous fist place medals to his name attest to his talents. Fairbanks sculptor Vladimir Zhikhartsev, originally from Russia, now living in the US, has quite a skill for working with ice. From a photographer’s perspective, his work is always interesting, not just compositionally, but because he has perfected the use of texture on the ice, and this is critical when it comes time to lighting the sculpture. Below are a number of frames from this year’s piece titled “Pandoras Box”. “1st place in the abstract category of the 2009 World Ice Art Championships in Fairbanks, Alaska. Sculpted by Vladimir Zhikhartsev, Vitaly Lednev, Aaron Costic, Joshua Kang.
