William Bradford

Arctic Sunset was inspired by Bradford's second voyage to the Arctic Circle in August of 869. With a staff of forty explorers, scientists, and photographers, Bradford braved below­ freezing temperatures and fields of ice hundreds of miles in extent to execute a large number of sketches and photographs which were later published as a book, The Arctic Regions, in 1873. The arctic sunlight in the midnight hours, the subject of this picture, was the most challenging subject because of the tremendous amount of reflected light glancing off the huge expanses of ice.