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