Digital photography, Nikon D3000, Lightroom, Photoshop CS2
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ABOUT THE WORK
Material: Fine Art print pigment on Hanemuhle Baryta Paper
DISSOLVING BEAUTYThis work is part of my ongoing project about the drama produced by human unawareness, the climate crisis. One... Read More
DISSOLVING BEAUTY
This work is part of my ongoing project about the drama produced by human unawareness, the climate crisis. One of the most breathtaking
sites in the world is the Jökulsárlón
glacier lagoon. When I arrived there, I was struck by the serene scene of the iceberg-strewn
waters of the lagoon itself. Spending my whole day in the lagoon was a profoundly moving experience, where silence was only interrupted by the sound of ice cracking. I
was fully captivated by an almost surreal visual dimension created by the dominance of water and ice, which had a very limited colour palette. The low
sunlight and contrasts enhanced the blue nuances and ice iridescences. Despite its beauty, this stunning scene of
drifting icebergs is created from the melting ice glacier of a tongue
stretching south from the Vatnajökull, Iceland’s largest ice cap. The lagoon only emerged in 1934: since then, rising temperatures have
caused the glacier to recede and the lagoon to expand. As the fourth summary report of
the Scientific Committee on Climate Change, published in October 2023 states,
the glacier decline will be greater if gas emissions are not reduced, in line
with the Paris Agreement. The moment we face is so critical that reducing
emissions to reverse the effects of climate change needs total global and
individual efforts.
As a matter of fact, the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon is a dramatic landscape where you can witness the icy wall of the glacier
collapse and crumple into the water below. As such, it is the poignant product
of a warming world. Moreover, because of the increasing number of
tourists who want to get close to the icebergs, the tour business is growing: every day, hundreds of boats take visitors around iceberg-studded waters, to witness a treasure vanish. As a photographer, I think it
is an important task to show Nature’s dramatic condition and maybe to awaken
those emotions that scientific reports and data are probably still unable to
produce.