Travel nominee

I took these photos at the Columbia Glacier in southern Alaska's Prince William Sound. It's an idyllic setting that's teeming with life, but the majesty and serenity of the place are punctuated by harsh realities. This is the fastest-receding glacier in North America, and enormous chunks of it break off every day and crash into the sea. Approaching the glacier by boat requires navigating a vast field of floating ice, with some fragments as large as school buses and others the size of small homes.

Hello! My name is Emily Mae Czachor, and I'm a journalist based in New York City. Photography is my creative outlet and, often, cherished escape. It provides the means to share with others how I see the world, and it's beauty, even in challenging times. Perhaps especially then. Many of the pictures I take focus on natural wonders — wildlife and wide open spaces — or architecture, with a specific lens on the smaller shapes and details that fit together to form something grand.