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.
Ako bih vam rekao da je ovo radostan izraz lica, da li biste me nazvali ludim? Ne bih vam zamerio, jer svaki put kad pogledam ovaj arktički selfi, malo zadrhtim. Želim da vam kažem nešto o ovoj fotografiji.
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.
Plivao sam na Lofotskim ostrvima u Norveškoj, na obodu arktičkog kruga i voda je bila oko tačke mržnjenja. A vazduh? Oštrih minus 10 stepeni, i mogao sam bukvalno da osetim kako mi krv otiče iz šaka, stopala i lica, i juri da zaštiti vitalne organe. Najveća hladnoća koju sam ikada osetio. Ali čak i sa oteklim usnama, upalim očima i crvenim obrazima shvatio sam da na ovom mestu mogu da osetim veliko zadovoljstvo.
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."
Što se tiče bola, psiholog Brok Bastian ga je verovatno najbolje definisao kad je napisao: "Bol je neka vrsta prečice za stanje svesnosti. On čini da iznenada postanemo svesni svega u okruženju. Uvlači nas brutalno u virtuelnu čulnu svesnost o svetu, vrlo slično meditaciji."
If shivering is a form of meditation, then I would consider myself a monk. (Laughter)
Ako je drhtavica oblik meditacije, onda bih ja bio monah. (Smeh)
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.
Pre nego što se zapitamo zašto bi iko želeo da surfuje u ledenoj vodi, voleo bih da vam malo dočaram kako jedan dan u mom životu može izgledati.
(Music)
(Muzika)
(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) Čovek: Jeste da smo se nadali dobrim talasima, ali mislim da niko nije pomislio da će se to i desiti. Ne mogu da prestanem da se tresem. Užasno mi je hladno.
(Music)
(Muzika)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
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.
Kris Barkard: Znači, fotograf surfa? Iskreno, ne znam ni da li je to pravo zanimanje. Moji roditelji su definitivno mislili da nije kad sam im sa 19 godina rekao da napuštam posao zbog tog sna: plavo nebo, tropske plaže i preplanulost preko cele godine. Za mene je to bilo to. Nije postojao bolji život. Preznojavanje, slikanje surfera na egzotičnim turističkim destinacijama. Ali postojao je jedan problem. Što sam više vremena provodio putujući na ove egzotične lokacije, to mi je izgledalo manje zadovoljavajuće. Krenuo sam tražeći avanturu, a nalazio sam samo rutinu. To su bile stvari kao vaj-faj, televizija, večere i stalna mobilna veza koje su za mene bile karakteristike turističkih mesta na moru i onih koja nisu na moru i vrlo brzo, to je počelo da me guši.
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.
Počeo sam da žudim za divljim i otvorenim prostorima i tako sam krenuo da tražim mesta koja su drugi otpisali kao suviše hladna, zabačena i opasna za surfovanje i taj izazov me je zaintrigirao. Krenuo sam u neku vrstu ličnog krstaškog pohoda protiv svakodnevice, jer ako sam nešto shvatio, to je da za svako zanimanje, čak i za ono naizgled glamurozno kao što je fotografija surfa, postoji opasnost da postane monotono.
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.
Tako da sam u svojoj potrazi za razbijanjem monotonije nešto shvatio: samo je oko trećine Zemljinih okeana toplo, i to samo onaj uzak pojas oko ekvatora. Znači da, ako hoću da nađem savršene talase, to će verovatno biti negde gde je hladno, gde su mora ozloglašeno burna, i upravo sam tamo počeo da tražim. I na svom prvom putovanju na Island, osetio sam da sam našao upravo ono što sam tražio.
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.
Bio sam zadivljen prirodnom lepotom pejzaža, ali najvažnije, nisam mogao da verujem da smo našli savršene talase u tako zabačenom i surovom delu sveta. U jednom momentu, došli smo na plažu i zatekli ogromne komade leda na obali. Preprečili su nam put ka surfovanju i morali smo da ih zaobilazimo kao u lavirintu da bismo prošli, i kad smo stigli, sklanjali smo u ih stranu pokušavajući da stignemo do talasa. To je bilo neverovatno iskustvo koje nikad neću zaboraviti, jer usred tih teških uslova, osećao sam kao da sam nabasao na jedno od poslednjih mirnih mesta, negde gde sam našao jasnoću i povezanost sa svetom koju, znao sam, nikada ne bih našao na pretrpanoj plaži.
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.
Bio sam navučen. (Smeh) Stalno sam razmišljao o hladnoj vodi i od tada moja karijera je fokusirana na ta okrutna i nemilosrdna okruženja i to me je odvelo na mesta kao što su: Rusija, Norveška, Aljaska, Island, Čile, Farska ostrva i još mnoga druga mesta. Jedna od mojih omiljenih stvari u vezi sa ovim mestima je prosto izazov i kreativnost koja je potrebna da bi se samo stiglo tamo: sati, dani, nedelje provedene na Google Earth-u u lociranju neke zabačene plaže ili grebena na koji možemo da stignemo. I kad smo stigli tamo, vozila su bila isto tako kreativna: motorne sanke, transporter sovjetske vojske sa šest točkova i nekoliko super improvizovanih letova helikopterom. (Smeh) Helikopteri me jako plaše, inače.
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.
A ovo je bila jedna posebno neprijatna plovidba brodom uz obalu ostrva Vankuver do ovog zabačenog mesta za surf, gde smo završili bespomoćno gledajući iz vode kako nam medvedi uništavaju kamp. Odneli su nam hranu i delove šatora dajući nam do znanja da se nalazimo na dnu lanca ishrane i da je to njihovo mesto, a ne naše. Ali meni je to putovanje pokazalo divljinu kojom sam zamenio turističke plaže.
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.
Ali tek kad sam otputovao u Norvešku - (Smeh) - naučio sam da stvarno cenim hladnoću. Ovo je mesto gde neke od najvećih i najžešćih oluja na svetu prave ogromne talase koji se razbijaju o obalu. Bili smo u ovom malom, zabačenom fjordu na obodu arktičkog kruga. Tamo je veća populacija ovaca nego ljudi i ako bi nam trebala pomoć, ne bismo mogli da je nađemo. Bio sam u vodi fotografišući surfere i počeo je da pada sneg. A onda je temperatura počela da pada. Rekao sam sebi: "Nema šanse da izađeš iz vode. Putovao si ovoliko dugo i ovo je ono što si čekao: ledeni uslovi sa savršenim talasima." Iako nisam osećao prst da bih pritisnuo okidač, znao sam da nema šanse da izađem. Tako da sam radio šta god sam mogao, protresao ruke. Ali u tom momentu sam osetio nalet vetra kroz dolinu i ono što je počelo kao susnežica ubrzo je postalo prava mećava i počeo sam da gubim osećaj za to gde se nalazim. Nisam znao da li plutam ka otvorenom moru ili ka obali i sve što sam mogao da razaberem bio je slab zvuk galebova i talasa koji se razbijaju.
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.
Znao sam da su na ovom mestu tonuli brodovi i padali avioni, i dok sam plutao, postajao sam malo nervozan. U stvari, potpuno sam bio izbezumljen - (Smeh) - i bio sam na granici hipotermije i moji prijatelji su na kraju morali da mi pomognu da izađem iz vode. Ne znam da li sam počeo da ulazim u delirijum ili šta već, ali kasnije su mi rekli da sam imao osmeh na licu sve vreme.
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.
Upravo sam na ovom putovanju, i verovatno baš ovom prilikom, počeo da osećam da je svaka fotografija dragocena, jer je iznenada u tom momentu, to bilo nešto što sam bio primoran da dobijem. I shvatio sam da me je sve to drhtanje nečemu naučilo: u životu nema prečica za zadovoljstvo. Svaki vredan cilj zahtevaće od nas da se pomučimo bar malo, i to malo muke koju sam imao zbog svoje fotografije dodalo je vrednost mom radu, što mi je mnogo više značilo od pukog ispunjavanja stranica časopisa. Dao sam deo sebe na ovim mestima i ono sa čim sam otišao je osećaj ispunjenja koji sam oduvek tražio.
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.
Vraćam se na ovu fotografiju. Lako je videti smrznute prste i hladne zaštitne kostime i čak i borbu da se stigne tamo, ali pre svega, ono što ja vidim je samo zadovoljstvo.
Thank you so much.
Hvala vam mnogo.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)