Lake Baikal

A photographic exhibition of Olga Kamenskaya who presents a collection of over 70 extraordinary pictures of Lake Baikal. The underwater photographs of the deepest lake in the world, frequently called “the Blue Eye of Siberia” deserve particular recognition.

The thing which is most enrapturing in the Lake is… the ice, the form of which is not to be found elsewhere. Despite the severe continental climate of Siberia, with the air temperature dropping below -30°С, the lake creating a specific marine-like microclimate reluctantly releases the heat accumulated in the summer. In the middle of January, winter manages to bind the lake with ice, so the thickness of the ice cover in March reaches 80-120cm. Ice blocks form under-surface corridors of up to 6 metres in length, in which you can swim. Baikal ice seems to be black, however it is perfectly transparent and even when it is 1,5 metres thick, you can see the blackness of the Baikal depths through it.

Olga Kamenskaya – has graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical University. She is a diving and underwater photography instructor, also working with children. Olga Kamenskaya uses Nikon D700 and D200 cameras; she has won prizes in numerous Russian and international competitions of natural and underwater photography.

The artist equally enjoys diving in cold and warm waters. She loves discovering new interesting places and sharing her impressions with friends. Her diving passions were inspired by her son back in 2001, and her first contact with an underwater camera was in 2003. The basic themes of her art are interrelations between man and Nature and the breathtaking, virtually unreal beauty of the underwater world.

Olga Kamenskaya has photographed the amazing underwater world of the White and Barents Seas, Norwegian fiords, volcanoes and bears in Kamchatka, pagodas and shrines in Burma, tortoises and sharks in Galapagos, elephants and lions in Tanzania, whale sharks in Australia, pyramids and whales in Mexico, waterfalls and sea lions in Argentina, elephant seals and otariids in South Georgia, and penguins and icebergs in the Antarctic. She has already been to Lake Baikal ten times, and it has become a never-ending story to her… The kingdom of water and ice.

“Lake Baikal. A Kingdom of Water and Ice”
The Granaries 18.05.2012 – 18.09.2012
The Vistula River Museum 18.10.2012 – 5.05.2013