The temporary Glacier
During the summer of 2019 I was artist in residence @ Artbellwald Switzerland.
The residency gave me the opportunity to visit the high mountains of the Jungfrau - Aletsch region, a Unesco world heritage site.
I spent many hours walking the trails looking at the scenery, thinking and photographing the mountains and glaciers.
The glaciers that I have seen change and retreat during my lifetime.
It was an exhilarating but at the same time an unsettling experience.
I now think about glaciers as temporary, which actually is quite a shocking concept!
Going Gone
Visual promise
The restless and relentless search for images!
Images telling the story of my travels.
Always hoping and expecting the next best photograph will be just around the corner.
And indeed sometimes it is.
Quite often it is not.
But never give up!
Onward and upward
NINETEEN NINETY - NINETEEN NINETY TWO | walking the alps
Thirty years ago, a lifetime!
Those mountains haven’t changed
HAVE THEY NOT?
But for tourism on steroids
More pervasive, more aggressive, more people, more in your face
But for wet snow
Used to be dry and light - now wet and heavy
MORE STICKY - melts faster
My relationship with the landscape of the Alps goes back a long time and is complex, like any relationship that has endured.
I am not showing a simple yes or no approach. I photograph the good, the bad, the indifferent and all the up and downs of a long lasting relationship.
But the underlying message is I cannot live without being there, experiencing the landscape, looking at it, thinking about it and visualizing it.
Much has changed - nothing has changed - more will change
The pictures I took - the pictures I am taking - the pictures I am going to take
The world changed - I have changed - our climate will change
MORE!
walking the alps
THE QUALITY OF SNOW | the end of history
UP & down | WALKING the camera
Light, shapes, colours, textures
Perspective, point of view, framing, moment
EXPERIENCES
Meaning?
Love of looking
Love for seeing
Walking the Alps
EXPERIENCING
Unwelcoming countryside
Sublime scenery
Inhospitable landscapes
Tired feet, tired legs, tired everything
EXHAUSTING
Significance?
Love for looking
Love of seeing
Walking higher
Moving unhindered through open space
A mindset rather than actuality
IMAGINATION or FANTASY?
Love to look
Love to see
Momentous!
up & DOWN | walking the CAMERA