Emergency flares piercing icy conditions in a series by photographer Kevin Cooley

Hey! What’s Kevin Cooley doing in these remote places with an emergency flare? Is he in trouble? No. In all seriousness, Take Refuge looks at our relationship with nature and how humans are constantly interfering with it. Kevin has disturbed (in a nice way) places like Oregon, Colorado, and the remote Arctic island Spitsbergen to create this beautiful series. A constant work-in-progress, he takes his camera to desolate locations, lights an emergency flare and creates these incredible contrasts between icy environments and the warm glow of the flare. Kevin said in an interview for Co.Design that flares “represent distress, yet remain comforting at the same time.”

From the eery glow inside a cave to the smoke of the flare blanketing the ship in the background, no two images are the same. Serene, incredible and beautiful.