So if I told you that this was the face of pure joy, would you call me crazy? I wouldn't blame you, because every time I look at this Arctic selfie, I shiver just a little bit. I want to tell you a little bit about this photograph.
Ak vám poviem, že toto je výraz dokonalého šťastia, poviete, že som blázon? Nedávam vám to za vinu, lebo vždy, keď vidím túto selfie z Akrtídy, sa trochu strasiem. Chcem vám niečo o tejto fotografii porozprávať.
I was swimming around in the Lofoten Islands in Norway, just inside the Arctic Circle, and the water was hovering right at freezing. The air? A brisk -10 with windchill, and I could literally feel the blood trying to leave my hands, feet and face, and rush to protect my vital organs. It was the coldest I've ever been. But even with swollen lips, sunken eyes, and cheeks flushed red, I have found that this place right here is somewhere I can find great joy.
Plával som na Lofotských ostrovoch v Nórsku v Severnom polárnom kruhu a voda zamŕzala. Vzduch? Silný ľadový vietor a -10 °C . Doslova som cítil, ako mi krv odchádzala z rúk, nôh a tváre v snahe rýchlo zachrániť životne dôležité orgány. Nikdy som nebol na studenšom mieste. Ale aj napriek napuchnutým perám, skleslým očiam a červeným lícam cítim, že je to miesto, kde môžem nájsť veľké šťastie.
Now, when it comes to pain, psychologist Brock Bastian probably said it best when he wrote, "Pain is a kind of shortcut to mindfulness. It makes us suddenly aware of everything in the environment. It brutally draws us in to a virtual sensory awareness of the world much like meditation."
Čo sa týka bolesti, psychológ Brock Bastian to asi povedal lepšie, keď napísal: „Bolesť je niečo ako skratka vedúca k úplnej pozornosti. Robí nás vedomých si všetkého naokolo. Brutálne nás priťahuje k úplnému zmyslovému vnímaniu sveta rovnako ako meditácia.“
If shivering is a form of meditation, then I would consider myself a monk. (Laughter)
Ak je trasenie sa forma meditácie, potom sa považujem za mnícha. (smiech)
Now, before we get into the why would anyone ever want to surf in freezing cold water? I would love to give you a little perspective on what a day in my life can look like.
Skôr než vysvetlím, prečo niekto chce surfovať v ľadovej vode, by som vám chcel priblížiť, ako môže vyzerať jeden môj deň.
(Music)
(hudba)
(Video) Man: I mean, I know we were hoping for good waves, but I don't think anybody thought that was going to happen. I can't stop shaking. I am so cold.
(video) Muž: Čakali sme na dobré vlny, ale nemyslím si, že niekto očakával, že prídu. Nemôžem sa prestať triasť. Je mi hrozná zima.
(Music)
(hudba)
(Applause)
(potlesk)
Chris Burkard: So, surf photographer, right? I don't even know if it's a real job title, to be honest. My parents definitely didn't think so when I told them at 19 I was quitting my job to pursue this dream career: blue skies, warm tropical beaches, and a tan that lasts all year long. I mean, to me, this was it. Life could not get any better. Sweating it out, shooting surfers in these exotic tourist destinations. But there was just this one problem. You see, the more time I spent traveling to these exotic locations, the less gratifying it seemed to be. I set out seeking adventure, and what I was finding was only routine. It was things like wi-fi, TV, fine dining, and a constant cellular connection that to me were all the trappings of places heavily touristed in and out of the water, and it didn't take long for me to start feeling suffocated.
Chris Burkard: Fotograf surfistov, však? Pravdupovediac ani neviem, či je to naozaj povolanie. Moji rodičia si to určite nemyseli, keď som im v 19 povedal, že odchádzam z práce, aby som mohol ísť za svojím snom: modrá obloha, horúce tropické pláže, opálené telo po celý rok. Chcem povedať, pre mňa to bolo všetkým. Nemohol som žiť šťastnejšie. Potil som sa a fotil som surfistov v exotickým turistických destináciách. Mal som iba jeden problém. Čím viac som cestoval na tieto exotické miesta, tým menej ma napĺňali. Zaumienil som si hľadať dobrodružstvá, ale nachádzal som iba rutinu. Wifi, televízia, reštaurácie a nepretržité mobilné spojenie boli pôžitky miest plných turistov vo vode aj mimo nej. Skoro som sa začal cítiť stiesnený.
I began craving wild, open spaces, and so I set out to find the places others had written off as too cold, too remote, and too dangerous to surf, and that challenge intrigued me. I began this sort of personal crusade against the mundane, because if there's one thing I've realized, it's that any career, even one as seemingly glamorous as surf photography, has the danger of becoming monotonous.
Začal som túžiť po voľných divokých priestranstvách, a tak som sa dal do hľadania miest, ktoré ostatní zavrhli pre prílišný chlad, diaľku alebo nebezpečenstvo pre surfovanie, a táto výzva ma zaujala. Začal som tento osobný boj proti rutine, lebo ak som si niečo uvedomil, tak to, že každej kariére, dokonca aj kariére tak zdanlivo úspešnej ako je fotografovanie surfistov, hrozí, že sa premení na rutinu.
So in my search to break up this monotony, I realized something: There's only about a third of the Earth's oceans that are warm, and it's really just that thin band around the equator. So if I was going to find perfect waves, it was probably going to happen somewhere cold, where the seas are notoriously rough, and that's exactly where I began to look. And it was my first trip to Iceland that I felt like I found exactly what I was looking for.
Pri hľadaní, ako sa jej zbaviť, som si uvedomil, že iba asi tretina svetového oceánu je teplá, a to ten naozaj úzky pás okolo rovníka. Takže ak som mal nájsť dokonalé vlny, pravdepodobne sa to malo stať na nejakom studenom mieste, kde sú moria divoké, a presne tam som začal hľadať. Na mojej prvej ceste na Island som pocítil, že som našiel presne to, čo som hľadal.
I was blown away by the natural beauty of the landscape, but most importantly, I couldn't believe we were finding perfect waves in such a remote and rugged part of the world. At one point, we got to the beach only to find massive chunks of ice had piled on the shoreline. They created this barrier between us and the surf, and we had to weave through this thing like a maze just to get out into the lineup. and once we got there, we were pushing aside these ice chunks trying to get into waves. It was an incredible experience, one I'll never forget, because amidst those harsh conditions, I felt like I stumbled onto one of the last quiet places, somewhere that I found a clarity and a connection with the world I knew I would never find on a crowded beach.
Prirodzená krása prírody ma ohromila. To najdôležitejšie je, že som nemohol uveriť, že som našiel dokonalé vlny v takej vzdialenej a nepokojnej končine sveta. V jeden deň sme prišli na pláž a našli sme tam nakopené obrovské kusy ľadu. Vytvorili medzi nami a príbojom bariéru a museli sme si v tom labyrinte preraziť cestu k vode. Kusy ľadu sme naukladali na jednu stranu, aby sme sa dostali k vlnám. Bol to neskutočný zážitok, na ktorý nikdy nezabudnem, lebo uprostred týchto tvrdých podmienok som pocítil, že som narazil na jedno z posledných pokojných zákutí planéty, kde som našiel pokoj a spojenie so svetom, ktoré by som nikdy nebol našiel na pláži plnej ľudí.
I was hooked. I was hooked. (Laughter) Cold water was constantly on my mind, and from that point on, my career focused on these types of harsh and unforgiving environments, and it took me to places like Russia, Norway, Alaska, Iceland, Chile, the Faroe Islands, and a lot of places in between. And one of my favorite things about these places was simply the challenge and the creativity it took just to get there: hours, days, weeks spent on Google Earth trying to pinpoint any remote stretch of beach or reef we could actually get to. And once we got there, the vehicles were just as creative: snowmobiles, six-wheel Soviet troop carriers, and a couple of super-sketchy helicopter flights. (Laughter) Helicopters really scare me, by the way.
Stal som sa závislým. (smiech) Nemohol som prestať myslieť na studenú vodu a od tej chvíle sa moja kariéra upriamila na tieto nehostinné a kruté končiny a zaviedla ma na miesta ako Rusko, Nórsko, Aljaška, Island, Čile, Faerské ostrovy a mnohé medzizastávky. Na týchto miestach sa mi páčila výzva a tvorivosť, ktorú si vyžadovalo dostať sa tam. Hodiny, dni, týždne s Google Earth hľadajúc akýkoľvek vzdialený kúsok pláže alebo útesu, na ktorý by sa dalo dostať. A keď sme tam prišli, spôsob dopravy bol veľmi tvorivý: snežné skútre, autá so 6 kolesami na prevoz sovietskych vojsk a zopár improvizovaných letov vrtuľníkom. (smiech) Vrtuľníky mi naozaj naháňajú strach.
There was this one particularly bumpy boat ride up the coast of Vancouver Island to this kind of remote surf spot, where we ended up watching helplessly from the water as bears ravaged our camp site. They walked off with our food and bits of our tent, clearly letting us know that we were at the bottom of the food chain and that this was their spot, not ours. But to me, that trip was a testament to the wildness I traded for those touristy beaches.
Išli sme na lodi plnej výtlkov až na pobrežie ostrova Vancouver surfovať až na toto vzdialené miesto, kde sme bezmocne z vody pozorovali, ako nám medvede zničili tábor. Začali naším jedlom a kúskami stanu a dali nám najavo, že sme na spodku potravového reťazca a že to je ich miesto, nie naše. Ale pre mňa bola táto cesta svedectvom o tom, že som vymenil turistické pláže za divočinu.
Now, it wasn't until I traveled to Norway -- (Laughter) -- that I really learned to appreciate the cold. So this is the place where some of the largest, the most violent storms in the world send huge waves smashing into the coastline. We were in this tiny, remote fjord, just inside the Arctic Circle. It had a greater population of sheep than people, so help if we needed it was nowhere to be found. I was in the water taking pictures of surfers, and it started to snow. And then the temperature began to drop. And I told myself, there's not a chance you're getting out of the water. You traveled all this way, and this is exactly what you've been waiting for: freezing cold conditions with perfect waves. And although I couldn't even feel my finger to push the trigger, I knew I wasn't getting out. So I just did whatever I could. I shook it off, whatever. But that was the point that I felt this wind gush through the valley and hit me, and what started as this light snowfall quickly became a full-on blizzard, and I started to lose perception of where I was. I didn't know if I was drifting out to sea or towards shore, and all I could really make out was the faint sound of seagulls and crashing waves.
Až v Nórsku (smiech) som sa naozaj naučil oceniť chlad. Práve tu niektoré z najväčších a najsilnejších búrok na svete lámu o pobrežie obrovské vlny. Boli sme v tomto malom vzdialenom fjorde hneď pod Severným polárnym kruhom. Žije tam viac oviec ako ľudí, ak by sme boli potrebovali pomoc, nenašli by sme ju tam. Vo vode som fotil surfistov a začalo snežiť. Teplota začala klesať. Povedal som si, že nemôžem vyjsť z vody. Cestoval si až sem a toto je presne to, čo si si prial: ľadové podmienky s dokonalými vlnami. Aj keď som pre chlad nemohol ani stlačiť tlačidlo fotoaparátu, vedel som, že nemôžem vyjsť. Urobil som, čo som mohol. Dostal som sa z toho. Vtedy som pocítil vietor z údolia, ktorý mi búšil do tváre, a to, čo začalo ako slabé sneženie, sa premenilo na silnú víchricu. Začal som strácať pojem o tom, kde som. Neviem, či ma unášalo na more alebo k brehu, bol som schopný rozlíšiť iba slabý zvuk čajok a vĺn.
Now, I knew this place had a reputation for sinking ships and grounding planes, and while I was out there floating, I started to get a little bit nervous. Actually, I was totally freaking out -- (Laughter) -- and I was borderline hypothermic, and my friends eventually had to help me out of the water. And I don't know if it was delirium setting in or what, but they told me later I had a smile on my face the entire time.
Vedel som, že to miesto bolo známe stroskotaniami lodí a leteckými haváriami, a, kým som sa vznášal na hladine, začal som byť trochu nervózny. V skutočnosti som úplne prichádzal o rozum (smiech) na pokraji podchladenia a moji kamaráti mi nakoniec museli pomôcť vyjsť z vody. Neviem, či som blúznil, ale neskôr mi povedali, že som mal po celý čas na tvári úsmev.
Now, it was this trip and probably that exact experience where I really began to feel like every photograph was precious, because all of a sudden in that moment, it was something I was forced to earn. And I realized, all this shivering had actually taught me something: In life, there are no shortcuts to joy. Anything that is worth pursuing is going to require us to suffer just a little bit, and that tiny bit of suffering that I did for my photography, it added a value to my work that was so much more meaningful to me than just trying to fill the pages of magazines. See, I gave a piece of myself in these places, and what I walked away with was a sense of fulfillment I had always been searching for.
Na tejto ceste a možno presne pri tomto zážitku som naozaj začal cítiť, že každá fotografia je cenná, lebo zrazu, v tej chvíli, som ju musel urobiť. Uvedomil som si, že všetky tie triašky ma naučili, že v živote neexistujú skratky ku šťastiu. Všetko, za čím stojí zato ísť, si vyžaduje trošku utrpenia, iba trošku, a tá troška utrpenia pre moju fotku pridala mojej práci hodnotu pre mňa oveľa dôležitejšiu ako iba zaplniť stránky časopisov. Pozrite, na tých miestach som nechal kúsok zo mňa a keď som z nich odišiel, mal som pocit naplnenia, ktorý som vždy hľadal.
So I look back at this photograph. It's easy to see frozen fingers and cold wetsuits and even the struggle that it took just to get there, but most of all, what I see is just joy.
Hľadím spätne na túto fotografiu a vidím zamrznuté prsty a studené neoprénové obleky, a dokonca boj, ktorý predstavovala cesta tam, ale hlavne vidím radosť.
Thank you so much.
Ďakujem pekne.
(Applause)
(potlesk)