Antarctica Photos Featured At Holy Innocents' Ventulett Gallery

A free, public reception for the exhibit “Antarctica” is Thursday, Oct. 6, from 6-8 p.m. at the Ventulett Gallery inside Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church (HIEC).

Photographs by Santiago Vanegas were inspired by his visit to Antarctica in 2009. “It’s like going to another planet,” Vanegas says. “Ironically, being in Antarctica is [also] the closest I’ll ever feel to Earth. Vast landscape, infinitesimal… human. Our dire threat to nature, and the delicate polar ecology. It’s humbling. It’s a place where the miniscule and the monumental are mutually epic.

“I had to go, absorb, and tell a story.”

Vanegas has navigated in and out of two cultures throughout his life. Born in Philadelphia, he has moved back and forth several times between the United States and his native Colombia. The photographer was inspired by his mother, a painter, as well as Surrealist art, Latin American music, and the world of cinema.

He is currently based in Atlanta.

The exhibit “Antarctica” is open through Nov. 11 during regular church business hours. Holy Innocents' is located at 805 Mt. Vernon Hwy. N.W., Atlanta, GA 30327.