PDX Contemporary Art is pleased to present Fragile beauty, a solo exhibition by photographer Susan Seubert.

The show features both small ambrotypes and large- scale pigment prints of icebergs taken by Seubert over her many years as a photographer for the National Geographic Expeditions Program. Icebergs, the offspring of glaciers and ice sheets, are a testament to not only the beauty of our planet, but also how rapidly our global climate is changing.

The pigment prints highlight the intensity of the mostly monochromatic icebergs against the unexpectedly bright colors of the water and skies. The ambrotypes are a wet- collodion negative on glass that, when viewed with a dark background, appear as a positive image. They were most popular in the mid-1850s to mid-1860s. The black and white tones reduce the icebergs to shapes and compositions, removing the nuance of color. The small size compels the viewer to come close to the work to examine the details of the ice and to appreciate the fragile beauty of this planet we call home.

The term ambrotype comes from Ancient Greek: ambrotos, "immortal", and typos, "impression”. This collection of images spans a decade, and in that time, many of the icebergs shown are now gone, broken up as the fresh water from their demise has been added to our world’s saltwater oceans, changing the tenuous balance of Earth’s ecosystems, making the documentation of these icebergs even more important and powerful.

Fragile beauty is part of World Day for Glaciers on March 21st, which was established in 2025 by the United Nations General Assembly. The day is celebrated as part of the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation. The day and year are intended to raise awareness about the importance of glaciers and to encourage action to preserve them.

We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

(Preamble to the United Nations Earth Charter)

Award winning photographer Susan Seubert was born in 1970 in Indianapolis, Indiana. She received her BFA in photography from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 1992 In 1999, Columbia University's Journalism Department awarded her Life Magazine's Alfred Eisenstaedt Award and recently Susan has twice been recognized with awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association. She currently shoots assignments throughout the world and is a regular contributor to National Geographic and The New York Times, among others. Exacting in her preparation and printing, she is a master with the antiquated techniques of silver gelatin and platinum processes, tintype and wet plate collodion, and is also well versed in digital photography. Seubert has exhibited continuously in the United States and abroad and her imagery has earned her critical acclaim with inclusion in the Portland Art Museum's 1999 and 2001 Biennials, the 2009 Tacoma Art Museum Biennial, and Portland 2012’s Biennial of Northwest Art. Seubert was included in the Venice Biennale in 2017 at the European Cultural Center located at the prestigious Palazzo Bembo.