A Photographic Exploration Of The Cryosphere

The Guardian

When Records Melt is an exhibition by Project Pressure premiering at Unseen Amsterdam of artists’ interpretations of the cryosphere: the part of the planet’s surface where water is frozen into solid form

Amphulapcha Tsho, Nepal, 2016

Christopher Parsons joined forces with a research team to study glaciers and permafrost in the Sagarmatha region of the Himalayas. Water, sand and rock samples taken on location were analysed and cultured by a microbiologist in the UK. Parsons displays these microscopic elements alongside the Nepalese landscapes.
Photograph: Christopher Parsons/Project Pressure

Thjorsa River, Iceland, 2012

Ed Burtynsky explores the water storage and transport systems that can be found in glaciers, focusing on how they release water into the world’s river systems. The resulting images depict the beauty and monumental scale of the meltwater runoff. Burtynsky reminds us of what we are losing as glaciers continue to diminish across the globe.
Photograph: Ed Burtynsky/Project Pressure

In an attempt to preserve the Rhône glacier, as well as the ice-grotto tourist attraction that is dug into the ice every year, Swiss locals wrapped a significant section of the ice-body in a thermal blanket. In their collaborative work, Simon Norfolk and Klaus Thymann created images illuminating the glacier and its protective shield. The title Shroud sums up the dying glacier under its death cloak.
Photograph: Simon Norfolk and Klaus Thymann/Project Pressure

Mount Shuksan from Mount Baker Lodge Lakes, Washington, US, 2014

Peter Funch uses vintage postcards as a model for his images of Washington’s Mount Baker to capture the effects of glacial recession. These effects are highlighted through his use of RGB tricolour separation, in which individual colour layers are recorded separately and then merged into a single image. Through his representation of the landscape, Funch aims to address humanity’s influence on nature.
Photograph: Peter Funch/Project Pressure

Bone from 4000BC, Switzerland, 2017

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin show how the rapidly shrinking glaciers are suddenly revealing artefacts that have until now been perfectly preserved in the stable, frozen mass for thousands of years. Their images, created in collaboration with archeological institutions and glaciologists in Switzerland, hint at intimate and complex human stories buried beneath the ice.
Photograph: Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin/Project Pressure

Rhône glacier, Switzerland, 2016

In order to mirror the shifting glacial landscape and make the changing environment tangible, Noémie Goudal constructed a large-scale photo of the glacier printed on biodegradable paper that disintegrates in water. As the image dissolves, the artificial landscape can be viewed against its natural form.
Photograph: Noémie Goudal/Project Pressure

Iceberg Calving in Antarctica, 1 March 2013

Michael Benson’s work is focused on the intersection of art and science, using a variety of image-processing techniques. Rifts extend across the Pine Island glacier’s shelf in this striking image of incipient iceberg calving taken through light cloud cover. Eight months later, a large iceberg of about 21 x 12 miles broke free from the glacier’s southwestern edge. The Pine Island glacier is thought to be responsible for about 25% of Antarctica’s sea ice production.
Photograph: Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures/USGS Earth Explorer/Nasa/Project Pressure

Still from Tarfala Valley film, 2018

For this film, Project Pressure developed a new way of visualising the changes in glacier landscapes through photography in collaboration with Dutch film company Post Panic and geologist Erik Schytt Holmlund.
Photograph: Project Pressure

Still from Tarfala Valley film, 2018

By sourcing images from 1946, 1959, 1980 and 2017 of the Tarfala Valley and Kebnekaise mountain in Sweden, the team created 3D models of these landscapes through photogrammetry. Throughout the film, viewers can see the landscape fade in and out with each year. As it progresses into more recent times, the devastating impact humans continue to have on the melting glacier landscape is undeniable.
Photograph: Project Pressure

Still from Tarfala Valley film, 2018

In 2018 the highest point in Sweden changed; excessive heat melted the south peak of the Kebnekaise mountain, making the north peak is now Sweden’s highest point.
Photograph: Project Pressure

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