Gezicht op een ijsberg in de Karazee before 1886

This photograph of an iceberg in the Kara Sea was made by H. Ekama, likely in the 1880s, and appears in an account of the Dutch expeditions that explored the area in 1882-1883. The photograph would have been both a tool for scientific documentation and a powerful symbol of Dutch exploration and discovery. The Kara Sea, located north of Siberia, was a remote and challenging environment, so expeditions like this served to expand geographical knowledge but also to assert Dutch presence and influence in the world. The composition of the photograph is striking: the iceberg towers over the viewer. Consider how the image, and the book in which it appears, might have shaped public perceptions of the Arctic and Dutch identity in the late 19th century. We can better understand the photograph by consulting expedition records, scientific reports, and period publications that reveal the values, assumptions, and ambitions of the explorers and institutions involved. Art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.