The amazing impact images can have

When you think of changemakers, the focus is not often on photographers. Yet they have a powerful ability to zoom in on issues we need to know about, engaging us on an emotional level. That is exactly what Project Pressure does, bringing together a team of highly talented photographers to cast light on one of the world’s most urgent issues to date: climate change.

Project Pressure is an ongoing international collaboration using art to inspire action and behavioural change. How? By commissioning world-renowned names such as Edward Burtynsky, Simon Norfolk and Noémi Goudal to visualise the climate crisis. The current focus is on glaciers, as powerful visual symbols of what is going on with the planet at large.

Project Pressure was initiated in 2008 by Danish photographer, filmmaker and creative director Klaus Thymann and since then has supported more than 30 expeditions around the world, creating works that together have a cumulative impact, opening our eyes to what we know but find hard to imagine.

“Project Pressure is a highly relevant collaboration between committed photographers. They strengthen each other with their different visual styles and approaches, making it artistically engaging – while also addressing climate change in a way that you can see and feel. And they execute it really well, working together with climate scientists and established institutions. It’s visually important art with activism and impact. Let’s change the scene for a better world!” says Dutch photo editor and curator Lotti Pronk.

Markarfljót River #1, 2012. © Edward Burtynsky. We are reshaping the earth in colossal ways. The vast Icelandic landscape depicted here reveals the beauty and monumental scale of meltwater runoff with hints of manmade features. Here, Edward Burtynsky reminds us that we are losing a vital source of fresh water as glaciers continue to diminish across the globe.

Glacier #2, 2016. © Noémie Goudal. To mirror the shifting glacial landscape, Noémie Goudal constructed a large-scale photographic installation printed on biodegradable paper that disintegrates in water. As the image dissolves, the artificial landscape can be viewed against its natural form, visualising the accelerating transformations in nature.

The Lewis Glacier, Mt Kenya, 1963 (A), 2014. © Simon Norfolk. In October 2014, Simon Norfolk traced the previous glacial area of Lewis Glacier, using fire to show the extent of the glacier in 1965. His dramatic juxtaposition of the historic as well as the current glacial front communicates a potent message. Winner of the Sony World Photography Award 2015 (landscape category).

Human bone from 4000 BC, Switzerland, 2017. © Broomberg and Chanarin. The rapidly shrinking glaciers are revealing artefacts that have until now been perfectly preserved in the stable, frozen mass for thousands of years. Broomberg and Chanarin’s work, created in collaboration with archaeologists and glaciologists, hints at intimate and complex human stories buried inside the ice.

Speke, Uganda, 2012. © Klaus Thymann. Seeking to challenge conceptions of where glaciers exist, Klaus Thymann emphasises the importance of treating climate change as a global issue, rather than just centred around the poles.

Mt. Shuksan, 48° 51’ 56.556”, -121° 40’ 40.65”, 2014. © Peter Funch. Postcards and historic images serve as comparative visual sources tracing the effects of climate change through evidence of glacial retreat. During the industrial revolution, huge progress was made in the development of photographic processes such as the RGB separation technique used in Funch’s images, which acts as a metaphor to illustrate the presence of human interference and the passing of time.

Shroud, 2018. © Simon Norfolk & Klaus Thymann. In an attempt to preserve an ice-grotto tourist attraction at the Rhône Glacier, local Swiss entrepreneurs wrapped a section of the ice in a thermal blanket. In their collaborative work, Simon Norfolk and Klaus Thymann address financial issues as driving forces behind human adaptation to the changing climate. The title Shroud refers to the melting glacier under its ‘death cloak’.

Ice Cave, Vatnajökull, 2014. © Richard Mosse. Glacier caves usually form when air enters and water flows under the ice. The warm air slowly melts the ice and forms a cave underneath. The dynamic process is becoming more unpredictable as the weather changes and cave access may become impossible in the future.

Aragats Summit, 2016. © Toby Smith. The top of Mount Aragats, Armenia, is the highest point of the country and the lower Caucasus, and the glaciers are key to the area’s hydrology. Smith reached the summit and circumnavigated Aragats, exploring the long history of civilisation in a place which holds a special place for both the local ecology and faith.

Photographers leading the way

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