Photos of ice formations on Toronto's waterfront have been steadily appearing in the theGentries 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 (

view larger sizes)

Ice Sculpture's 2011 ~ II (

view larger sizes)

The Caped Crusader (

view larger sizes)

Syncros

Ashbridges Bay III (

view larger sizes)

The Swan (

view larger sizes)

Flash Frozen (

view larger sizes)

Ice Dove (

view larger sizes)

Asbridges Bay (

view larger sizes)

DdotG

Frozen Hell (

view larger sizes)

Unearthly Beauty (

view larger sizes)

SnapHappyExpat

Toronto Island Ice (

view larger sizes)

Frozen Sculpture 1 (

view larger sizes)

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*)