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Caught In The Act

An unprecedented experiment in time-lapse photography reveals how quickly glaciers are melting around the world

This Article Features Photo Zoom

Above: An EIS team member gives a sense of scale on the massive Svínafellsjökull Glacier in Iceland. Through his own unique lens and that of 26 other time-lapse Nikon D200 cameras, James Balog is using his innovative Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) to document the short-term, rapid changes in glaciers caused by global warming.This is the most wide-ranging study of glaciers ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. Chosen for their scientific value, representation of regional conditions, ease of access and photogenic quality, glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, the Rockies and the Alps, among other locations, are the focus of the project.

On glaciers across the northern hemisphere, a couple dozen solar-powered cameras are shooting once an hour for every daylight hour, capturing the ice as it melts in real time. This is a phenomenon often discussed but rarely seen, and perhaps never before in this way. When culled together, these hour-to-hour frames compose dramatic time-lapse image sequences showing that glaciers everywhere are disappearing fast.

In 2006, celebrated nature photojournalist James Balog launched the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS). Twenty-six cameras stationed at glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, the Rockies and the Alps, among other locations, will produce more than 300,000 images to be analyzed, stitched and edited together. The resulting time-lapse videos will show landscapes that are radically changing, sometimes over the course of just a few months. While the notion that glaciers are melting as a result of global warming is nothing new, seeing the speed at which it’s happening is remarkable.

“What is simply mind-boggling is the wholesale destruction of these creatures in such a short period of time,” says Balog of the melting glaciers. “It’s just staggering, and this project is an attempt to radically alter how the public perceives global warming.”

Back in 2006, Balog had just spent much of the previous two years working on assignments for The New Yorker and National Geographic that examined the effect of climate change on glaciers around the world. What he saw were surprising amounts of ice vanishing at an astounding speed, like 245 feet over seven months in Iceland. Balog, who has studied glaciers and alpine environments on and off for most of his life, had never thought change of that magnitude was possible in such a short time frame. Right then, he began devising EIS.

“I had always approached glaciers as scenic places. With The New Yorker assignment, I was looking at them within the context of climate change and I had to photographically think about glaciers in a way that I hadn’t before,” he explains. “But I’m still trying to evoke the personality, beauty and grandeur of these places in a way that pushes boundaries and breaks traditions. The photographs are still hung on all of the usual elements of beauty, light, color and composition.”

A scientist-turned-photographer, Balog has a degree in geomorphology, the study of landforms and the processes that shape them. His photographic ambition grew out of the climbing trips he took as a student on the East Coast, his camera skills developing as he went on to scale the Alps, the Himalayas and the Rockies. The combination of his analytical scientific background and artistic eye is why he’s known for breaking new ground with his images.

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