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Showing delicate transparent columns and alien
crystalline shapes, these stunning photographs could be a taken by a
deep space probe on another planet, or from inside a state-of-the-art
submarine under the Arctic ice.
But they are in fact taken by a 55-year-old Russian amateur
photographer, who does little more than stick his head through a hole in
a frozen river and snap the results.
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Indeed, the simple nature of their composition makes the photos even
more remarkable.
The photographs reveal what's lurking under a frozen river in eastern
Leningradskaya Oblast, Russia - an incredible colourful world of
sparkling icicles and shimmering snow.
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Every year the winter cold causes the Tianuksa River to freeze over. But
keen Russian photographer Yuri Ovchinnikov, 55, discovered a
multi-layered ice world was formed after gaps of air up to almost two
feet deep form between the frozen surface and the layer of water still
flowing underneath.
And Mr Ovchinnikov is not too proud to admit that he found the
enchanting subterranean world entirely by accident - his son actually
brought it to his father's attention after putting his foot through the
frozen river surface.
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Since then Mr Ovchinnikov has been squeezing his head and his camera
into more purpose-built holes all over the river.
He said: 'Because the gap is so small it's pretty hard to get inside -
you can just about get your head in together with the camera.
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'And of course the water is also flowing under the bottom layer. But the
river is not too deep so that's why I was not afraid.
'The feeling is very unusual, I have never seen anything like this
before.'
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