Jan Richard Heinicke | Lumix Festival für jungen Bildjournalismus

Jan Richard Heinicke
Melting Point

An ice radar shows the icebergs and floes in the area. Apart from the size, the radar also depicts the direction of flow.

A view from a porthole on the rough sea by Iceland. The weather did not prevent the crew from taking samples at the predetermined spots. After days of heavy storms, the weather became calmer, and most of the crew members were exhausted.

Fog occurs frequently in the Arctic in the summertime, when warm surface water meets cold air.

A scientist watches the ice floes go by. This area seems inhospitable, but life blooms here. While whales are more seldom seen along the route, seals and birds abound on the floes and all around.

An iceberg off the coast of Greenland. Estimated height: 95 metres. Icebergs can quickly become dangerous as they tend to tip, creating enormous waves. During the quick journey on the open sea, the bridge crew try to keep as much distance as possible from any form of ice.

A scientist watches as the measuring probe is lowered into the water. This probe is the most important scientific device on the expedition: it allows the researchers to gather samples from various water depths. The closer together the collection points, the higher the resolution of the gathered data.

An improvised clean room. While most of the scientists are working on the same project, a few are carrying out their own research as well. This scientist is adding trace elements to water samples in order to investigate how these elements affect the growth of biomass.

For the scientists, the CTD laboratory is the most important room on the ship. The probe is controlled and the data are selected here. Among other things, the monitor shows the salt and oxygen content, as well as the temperature at various depths.

A hose for liquid nitrogen. Most of the water samples are filtered on board; the filter papers are deep-frozen. The actual analysis takes place in Germany.

This scientist is working on a master’s degree in Hamburg. After finishing school, she trained as a tax advisor, but after a few years she decided to pursue her passion and go to sea.

The CTD probe breaks the surface of the water. The ship stops at 170 points along the route in order to take samples. Altogether, more than 1,500 samples are collected. The analysis will take months.

The captain of the Merian in his cabin. He is responsible for the scientists as well as the crew. He also looks after administrative and legal matters. On its route, the ship crosses several countries. The captain has been to the Arctic many times; over the past decades, he has witnessed the changes to the Arctic regions. Routes once blocked by ice are now navigable. The retreat of the glaciers can be seen along the entire coastline.

The people at the helm rely on modern GPS, but on nautical charts as well, which make it easier and faster to plan routes. Depending on the ice cover, they must be able to adapt their route as needed.

In the Arctic summertime, the sun does not set. Sunrise is at two o’clock in the morning.

A scientist seals an HCFC sample.

The samples in the vials are being examined for their HCFC content. This will allow the scientists to derive when the water was last in contact with the atmosphere and thus determine the “age” of the water.

The probe can be deployed only when the ship is still. Because the water can be up to 3,000 metres deep, the ship can remain in one spot for several hours. The officer on duty must take care that it does not float into an ice field.

The Maria S. Merian seen from above. After arriving in Spitsbergen, the participants rated the expedition as a success. All the experiments, which had taken years to prepare, had been carried out. The scientists had gathered data at an unprecedented resolution. After five years at sea, the Merian was docked at a wharf in Emden, where she would be overhauled.

In the middle of June 2019, climate researcher Steffen Olsen tweeted a photo of an expedition in the north of Greenland. This photo, which was shared thousands of times, shows sled dogs running through ankle-deep water under a bright blue sky. Olsen was travelling over the visibly disappearing sea ice. No region in the world is currently heating up as quickly as the Arctic, where warming is twice or even – in some places – four times the global average. Over the last 20 years, the loss of ice on Greenland has quadrupled. Along with the disappearing sea ice, climate researchers are most concerned about Greenland’s ice sheet. Photographer Jan Richard Heinicke accompanied a team of marine researchers who in July 2019 set sail from Newfoundland aboard the German research ship Maria S. Merian to conduct a three-week expedition along the east coast of Greenland to find out how to predict the rise in sea levels and investigate the consequences of climate change.

Climate
Greenland
Loneliness
Science
The Environment

The photographer Jan Richard Heinicke shares some background information concerning his project Melting Point and how he came upon this.

3 Questions

1. The door opener: Can you describe a formative moment in your career as a visual journalist?

Before I started studying Journalism, I completed a programme in Urban Planning, where I internalised scientific projects from which I can still benefit now. On the other hand, I also realised that urban planning can often only respond to developments. This led to my decision to get involved on “the other side” and use my own methods to search for problems and solutions. Photographic examination of the world helps me satisfy my curiosity. Whenever I notice from publications or exhibitions that my work has captured a current zeitgeist, it is a great compliment to me and an even greater motivator.

2. The decisive moment: When did you first encounter your topic and why did you decide to cover it photographically?

Climate change is an ever-present topic, and many photographers address it in various ways. Some accompany activists to open-pit mines; others document deforestation in the rainforest or the effects of climate change at the local level. As there is still doubt concerning the reality of climate change, I’m interested in the scientific side of things, in presenting evidence to counteract misinformation. This is why I was so happy when a journalist friend asked me whether I would like to sail with him on a research ship. Of course, I didn’t have to think about it too long!

3. The future: What could the visual journalism of the future be like?

Journalism is in an interesting situation right now. More and more people have access to information and pictures and can become creators themselves. At the same time, people have less trust in the traditional media. This means that freelance journalists have an important task: they must gather information from various sources, bundle it and translate it for an audience. I don’t believe that they are bound to purely photographic considerations here. Rather, they can make use of other disciplines and cooperate with other subject areas to make their statements clear and effectively reinforce them.

Booklet

heinicke-booklet_19_12_02_4

The booklet contains the general and scientific information of the journey aboard the Maria S. Merian.

Curated by Daniel Rodríguez

*1991 in the Ruhr Valley, Germany
Jan Richard Heinicke first studied Urban and Regional Planning, which sent him on travels throughout France, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries. Since 2015, he has been studying Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He has specialised in the topics of agriculture, modern technology and the field of tension between nature and science. His project “Melting Point” won the VGH Photo Prize in 2019.

www.jr-heinicke.de
@jr_heinicke

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