One side of each tree seems to be wearing a white feather boa. Jan Bainar’s photographs from the Beskydy Mountains make an ordinary forest feel wonderfully unfamiliar, especially where pale ice stands out against dark bark.
A clue in the direction
The one-sided coating is consistent with wind-driven rime: supercooled droplets freeze when they meet an exposed surface. The photograph is a useful clue, although it cannot supply a complete weather record. Our Javornik rime feature explains the process in more detail.
Bainar’s wider winter collection changes the mood again. Sunlight catches the branches in one frame, while a reflected pink sky replaces the cold forest palette in another. Together, those scenes reveal the photographer’s interest in light as well as unusual ice.
Look for the ordinary structure beneath the surprise
The trunks remain easy to recognise, which makes the coating more striking. For another surface transformed by a similar-looking pattern, compare ice-covered fences and branches. Small differences in exposure can create a very different photograph.
A forest study built around direction
Jan Bainar’s Beskydy photographs show a particularly strong contrast between the coated and exposed sides of the trunks. Following that contrast from one tree to the next gives the series a rhythm: the white forms repeat while the underlying bark remains recognisable.
The later winter views broaden the collection beyond the one-sided white coating. Light and colour become the connecting subjects: a branch catches the sun, while a pink sky changes the feeling of another scene. Those variations make the gallery a small introduction to Bainar’s way of seeing, rather than several interchangeable examples of frost. The photographer’s name links the work, while the individual images need not belong to the same day or weather episode to sit meaningfully together.
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