After just under four months of darkness, the sun reaches the horizon just close enough to illuminate the tips of the snow-capped mountains of southern Svalbard. Two days before the first sunrise of the year, whilst on board the plane to Longyearbyen, sitting in the aisle seat on what I thought was a fully booked flight, I was completely unaware of the beauty revealing itself kilometres below.
On a walk through the cabin, I realised that the rearmost row of seats was empty, so I rushed for my camera, took the window seat, and started shooting through the dirty window at a higher ISO than I normally would. The plane, moving swiftly above the icy sea and jagged mountains, added extra difficulty in composing and securing focus. Despite these technical limitations, this serendipitous moment led to a unique sequence of photographs that showcase the vast beauty of the frozen Arctic world of Svalbard from an angle and time of year very rarely seen.
