Mick Mackey: A scientist's career on ice

SCIENCE and art don’t always make the easiest bedfellows. However, when photographer Mick Mackey travelled to the sub-Antarctic island of Bird Island for a 30-month stint as a field biologist he was able to utilise his eye for detail to capture images that are not only technically proficient, but also vibrant, occasionally quirky and highly evocative.

Over 80 of these photographs can be seen at the ‘Shots from a Dark Light’ exhibition, which runs at Cork Vision Centre until Dec 13.

Mackey’s trip was not for the fainthearted. In winter, temperatures drop to -10C, and the small team of biologists are completely isolated from the outside world for long periods. However, this is one of the most biologically dense areas on earth; it is estimated that there is a bird or seal for every 1.5m² of the 400 hectare island.