Photos of ice formations on Toronto's waterfront have been steadily appearing in the blogTO Flickr pool for about a month or so. Surprisingly compelling, the best of these images conjure up the work of abstract expressionist masters like Jackson Pollock and invite the viewer to imagine faces and figures popping out from the patterns. And because a number of these photographs have proven popular in our photo of the week contest, it seems about time to put a collection together.

A dedicated search through the pool reveals hundreds of shots of ice formations, but there are nevertheless a few photographers whose work stands out above the rest, either on the basis of one or two strong images or because they've taken the time to shoot these icy patterns in an extended capacity. Some of their images are just fantastic. So they take the lead with a smaller collection of one-off photographs at the bottom, which are, of course, also very accomplished.

~EvidencE~ (who took the lead image as well)

Ice Land Spit Series IV (

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Ice Sculpture's 2011 ~ II (

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The Caped Crusader (

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Syncros

Ashbridges Bay III (

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The Swan (

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Flash Frozen (

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Ice Dove (

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Asbridges Bay (

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DdotG

Frozen Hell (

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Unearthly Beauty (

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SnapHappyExpat

Toronto Island Ice (

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Frozen Sculpture 1 (

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Other photographers

Frozen Dogwood (photo by

J Zoom)

Ice Formations (photo by

dan cronin.jpg)

Emergency Use Only (photo by

KyleLaurent)

Ice at Cherry Beach (photo by *Imperialis*)