Over the past three years Boomer Jerritt has made a dozen trips to the Antarctic and on Jan. 21 the Courtenay-based photographer will be presenting a culmination of those images, videos and stories in Nanaimo for the first time.
Jerritt is the photographer in residence for Squamish-based arctic cruise company One Ocean Expeditions. He got the position after a chance encounter in a Courtenay bar with a photographer friend who had just returned from photographing polar bears in northern Manitoba.
“I was there with some friends and he asked if I’d like to go down to the Antarctic and work on a ship called the Vavilov and he had a couple beer in him so he wasn’t 100 per cent,” Jerritt said. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ so he says, ‘Oh, no, no, I’m going to get you on this ship.'”
It turned out the company’s resident photographer cancelled and they needed a last-minute fill-in for one voyage. After Jerritt’s friend arranged a meeting, Jerritt was brought on board.
“That one meeting basically changed my entire direction of my business and this is what I do now,” Jerritt said.
He described that first trip as a “sensory overload.” He said the excitement has been bringing him back ever since.
“To go down and say you’re travelling halfway around the world, literally, to go down to a place that a lot of people will never ever see is something that’s quite special,” he said.
The expeditions have brought Jerritt to two principal locations: the Antarctic Peninsula, which favours landscape photography, and the wildlife-rich South Atlantic island of South Georgia.
“When we’re going down to the Antarctic Peninsula, the big thing there is landscapes,” he said. “I mean the penguins, for sure, but the landscape is such an immense place that’s hard to describe.”
Jerritt said South Georgia is called “the Serengeti of the polar world” because of its animal population. He said the island’s St. Andrew’s Bay is home to more than 250,000 king penguins.
“You’re watching raw life,” he said. “There’s life and death happening all around you with all these penguins, the chicks are there and you get the elephants seals doing their thing.”
On Jan. 21 Jerritt brings his presentation Antarctica: Off the Beaten Track to VIU’s Malaspina Theatre. He said he’s hoping to not only showcase the Antarctic sights, but to raise awareness. He said he’s “not a big environmentalist,” but since he’s been visiting the region he said he’s seen the effects of climate change firsthand.
He said his goal is to show his work on a touring circuit closer to home, as some of his voyages can last upwards of 50 days. He said he went on seven trips in 2018.
“When most people go there we tell them it’s a very difficult place to photograph because you’re going to be so inundated with an experience you’ve never had before,” Jerritt said.
WHAT’S ON … Antarctica: Off the Beaten Track comes to Malaspina Theatre on Monday, Jan. 21 from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission is $20 at the door or $18 in advance online.
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