CHRISTCHURCH.- Scott Base staff and scientists share what Antarctica means to them in Postcards to Antarctica, an exhibition by photo-journalist Guy Frederick on view at Canterbury Museum.

Accompanied by photographs and film, the exhibition transports the visitor to day-to-day life at Scott Base and celebrates Antarctica’s significance to science and humanity.

“Writing a postcard TO Antarctica may not be as strange as it seems,” says Guy. “Consider Te Urewera and the Whanganui River, both of which have been granted legal personhood status. That idea is really at the heart of my work – regarding the places in our lives as a person that we have a relationship with, someone that impacts on our lives and who deserves the same respect and justice that we all desire.

“I feel this is particularly important in this rapidly changing world, where the environment we rely on for our very survival is undergoing its own physical changes in response to climate change, and which in turn will directly impact us.

“Antarctica has a scientific and central role in climate change. Changes to the continent are affecting the world's sea levels and natural circulation systems in many ways and due to the fragility of Antarctica's ice, the continent is in turn being heavily impacted and undergoing continuing massive physical change itself.”

Guy visited Antarctica in December 2016 on Antarctica New Zealand’s Community Engagement Programme. Postcards to Antarctica builds on his Masters in Science Communication research that explored how the experience of working in Antarctica impacts and shapes scientists and their science. He works as a photo-journalist for a number of national magazines including North & South, The Listener and New Zealand Geographic. In 2012, he received the New Zealand Mental Health Media Grant and was awarded an Australasian Mental Health Service award for the photo-journalist project The Space Between Words. The project explored the mental health impacts of the Christchurch earthquakes and shared personal stories through photographs and words in several exhibitions.

Postcards to Antarctica opened at Canterbury Museum on 11 August and runs until 5 November 2017 in the Visitor Lounge, Level 3.