Photographer to offer rare glimpse of island frozen in time

pitlochry: Scot trades Antarctica for the Winter Words Festival

In Antarctic waters some 1,000 nautical miles from the Falkland Islands, the remote and inhospitable island of South Georgia is one of the most far flung corners of the world.

Frozen in time, the rusting remnants of the once all-powerful whaling industry sit in a rugged and beautiful landscape teeming with birdlife and sea mammals.

In late 2015, Scottish photographer and writer Jamie Grant left his home in Glen Lyon to take up the post of artist in residence on this remote Island for the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT).

He made his home alongside other SGHT museum staff in the abandoned whaling station of Grytviken, close to the British Antarctic Survey Base at King Edward Point.

Joining field biologists on multi-day expeditions on remote peninsulas, Jamie was able to visit areas that most visitors cannot reach.

He will offer an insight into his unique experience and of “wildlife, conservation and wilderness” at the end of the world at the 13th annual Winter Words Festival, taking place at Pitlochry Festival Theatre between February 10 and 19.

More than 2,000 workers, many from Tayside, once called the island’s safe harbours home as the whaling industry caught and processed a staggering 1.6 million whales.

The community vanished overnight in the mid-60s as whale numbers plummeted and abandoned whaling stations – ships, factories, dormitories and power plants – now litter South Georgia.

Jamie will be part of a line-up of more than 30 authors, writers, poets, filmmakers, adventurers and journalists to make their way to Pitlochry next month.

Among those sharing top billing at the event is politician Vince Cable who will share his view on the British economy and how best it should be managed.

Nicholas Crane, whose face and name will be familiar to fans of BBC’s Coast, will deliver a talk on his new book, which describes the evolution of Britain’s countryside and the development of its cities.

Award-winning crime author Christopher Brookmyre, meanwhile, will read from his new novel Black Widow.

Picture: John Alexander. Leith Harbour in South Georgia.

In late 2015, Jamie Grant left his home in Glen Lyon to take up the post of artist in residence on the remote island.