The storytelling power of images. Here is a beautiful example of the marriage of words and visuals, conveying a story that is above both words and images.

Johanna Nordblad holds the world record in free-diving under ice. For 50 meters she lets herself glide through the ice-cold water, without oxygen, wearing only a neoprene suit.

Not only the passion of this woman is unusual, unusual is also the way how she discovered this her unusual passion. In an accident with the bike she almost lost one leg. Only thanks to intensive ice therapy in the clinic her leg could be saved.

This awakened Johanna’s love for the cold element.

AFP photographer Olivier Morin has accompanied the extreme sportswoman to a frozen lake in Finland, where she cut her way through 45 centimeters of thick ice into the freezing element she learned to love so much.

Follow Johanna’s journey.