Southern Light

Reviews / Votes

"Southern Light is a blast of beauty. David Neilson...spreads before us myriad majestic peaks and plains in images that seem lit from within. One of several gatefold panoramas shows a colony of 20,000 king penguins, stretching as far as the lens can see... Neilson's animal close-ups are latter-day Audubons -- exquisitely observed portraits brimming with character... he revels in the glorious abundance of his subject. His camera celebrates life, unexpected eruptions of it in hues we don't associate with these latitudes -- pinks, lavenders, emeralds, the sage green of Macquarie Island cabbage and the orange glow of certain lichens. Southern Light is a love letter in the form of a coffee-table book." --Rebecca P. Sinkler, The New York Times Book Review Amazon.com 2013 Best Books of the Year selection: Outdoors & Nature Photography "This is a beauty!" --Longitude News "Anyone with an interest in wildlife photography in general and in Antarctica specifically will enjoy this large-format book, as Neilson and fellow photographer Karen Alexander capture the essence of Antarctica, from the various varieties of penguins to seals to humpback whales to snow-covered peaks to icebergs. Especially poignant are the relics left behind by the great explorers: Robert Scott's hut built in 1910 for his Terra Nova expedition, for example, or Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition campsite." --Chicago Tribune Winner: 2nd Place Nature Book --International Photography Awards "The spectacular images in David Neilson's Southern Light...reveal the unique beauty and mystery of the icebound expanses of Antarctica. Page after page of beautiful and mysterious icebergs, vast penguin colonies with their fluffy youngsters...seal pups, petrels and whales, as well as shots of Scott's expedition hut and the modern day scientists, all make us want to grab our cameras and head south." --Scotland on Sunday "Southern Light by David Neilson is a monumental book...The large format makes for some sumptuous images. Single-page images of this size are impressive but there are double-page spreads measuring 57 by 26 centimetres and even triple-page "gatefolds". A picture of 20,000 king penguins at St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia spread across 85 centimetres is amazing. And it is sharp enough to find an uncovered egg in the middle distance! Southern Light...emphasises the range of colours that tint the white continent. The dominant colour is blue in a range of shades but the scenes that remain clearest in my memory of Antarctica and which are invoked by this book are the soft yellows and pinks when the sun is low but shining through the clear atmosphere. There is no scenery that compares with mountains and ice set in a mirror-calm sea. It is difficult to catch atmosphere with a camera but Neilson manages it." --Robert Burton, Polar Record, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University "This is Antarctica as you have never seen it... This is a truly great photographic record of the continent. It offers images that are deeply personal and far beyond the usual photographic cliches." --Bruce Elder, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald "The stunning beauty of Antarctica has never been celebrated better than in this magnificent big book." --Noel Shaw, The Examiner "Southern Light is a gorgeous piece of work that quickly induces a fervent desire to visit this incredible piece of the world in all its icy splendour." --Belinda Smith, Wild magazine "Packed with large, luscious photographs of landscapes, rocky shorelines, penguins and brightly coloured lichen, this book shows us the stark beauty of this landscape and the animals that inhabit it." --Australian Geographic magazine "This book of Antarctic photographs by one of Australia's pre-eminent wilderness photographers documents six separate trips to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. It beautifully captures the frozen landscapes of their incredible environment, as well as the animals that live there." --Ross Taylor, Get Lost magazine