INTERVIEW Veteran US photographer gives environment 'visual voice' to chronicle climate change

James Balog's “Iceberg #52, Disko Bay, Greenland” (2019) / Courtesy of James Balog

By Park Han-sol

• Published Feb 8, 2023 8:41 AM KST
• Updated Feb 9, 2023 6:03 PM KST

James Balog explores collision between human and nature through time-lapse videos of ice loss, magnum opus 'The Human Element'

By Park Han-sol

In just a matter of minutes, what used to be immense continental glaciers gracing the treacherous regions of the planet are seen retreating and collapsing on screen, their meltwaters falling directly into the ocean.

The time-lapse videos of ice sheets in the Arctic Circle receding at an alarming rate have undoubtedly become the quintessential visual evidence of today's climate change.

Nonetheless, veteran American environmental photographer James Balog had no idea that his undertaking would reshape the conversation surrounding global warming at such a fundamental level when he set out to document the ancient glaciers disappearing before his lens 16 years ago.

The project, known as the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), began in 2007 intending to give a “visual voice” to altering glacial ecosystems using real-time photography. More than 40 automated cameras installed across Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland and Alaska, among others, have snapped photos year-round during the daytime.

Over the years, they have amassed an astounding archive of over 1.72 million single-frame images, which have been placed in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. as well as combined into undeniable time-lapse proof of glacial melt.

The whole process itself sounds clear-cut, but it required overcoming varying degrees of technical hurdles ― from obtaining funding to building cameras that could withstand the rigors of the polar winter.

“I didn't know if our cameras would really work and capture the incredible changes in the glaciers. I wasn't even sure where to put the cameras at the very beginning, and I had to get expert consultants in glaciology to help guide me,” the photographer recalled during his recent video interview with The Korea Times.

“Most importantly, I really had no idea if the public would care about whatever evidence we were able to produce. All these things were big unknowns.”

Much to his pleasant surprise, Balog's ice survey team started getting the first usable material within just six months of the project. The public response to such tangible pictorial evidence of melting glaciers was as immediate as it was fervent.

It was at that moment he realized that his long-held belief about what the world needed in terms of taking in the monumental ― and existential ― story of climate change was correct.

“What the world needed was some sort of easily comprehensible visual experience that expressed the reality of the climate ― the one that wasn't just a computer model nor statistics. It was something that a layperson without specialized knowledge could see and understand,” he said.

A case in point: Greenland alone has lost 5 trillion tons of icy weight since 2002, according to NASA last year. The number, while staggering, feels too distant in the public mind as an abstract statistical figure. But show them a minute-long time-lapse video of the island country's retreating glaciers and suddenly, the pace of the ice's disappearance feels chillingly real.

As much as the EIS's extensive photographic initiative has helped reshape global awareness of the changing environment, Balog acknowledged that after a decade into the project, its message was no longer seen as a novel or shocking point of information to the masses. But it was still a story that people needed to hear.

“So what I've been doing in recent years is framing it in this much broader context of the changes (taking place) in all of these different dimensions of our worlds ― earth, fire, air and water,” he noted. “It's not just ice anymore, but it's ice within this larger context of all these other environmental changes happening together and wrestling with humans.”

Exploring this broader relationship ― or so-called “contact zone” ― between humanity and nature has been a common thematic goal that has guided the documentarian throughout his four-decade career. His efforts have birthed iconic snapshots of deforestation, hurricanes, tsunamis, blazing wildfires and even jarring images of endangered species in captivity far from their native habitats.

The 2019 documentary “The Human Element” featuring Balog and his 2021 magnum opus “The Human Element: A Time Capsule from the Anthropocene” are the latest efforts put forth by the American photographer to look in-depth at a series of profound collisions between man and nature by explicitly adding “the human element” into the whole picture.

The documentary chronicles the overlooked lives of Americans on the front lines of the climate crisis ― on the gradually sinking Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay, in a struggling coal mining community in Kentucky and in the heavily industrialized town of Denver where developing “asthma is a normal thing.”

The 456-page photo book, published two years after the film, further delves into the ever-accelerating impact of humanity in nature through the concept of Anthropocene ― a geological epoch that marks the age of human-induced alterations to earth's ecosystems.

By humanizing the story of sweeping changes taking place on the planet, Balog prompts the audiences to fundamentally reexamine their relationship with the natural world.

“Like everybody else, I grew up thinking that humanity and nature were separate. But as I dove deeper, I began to understand that air, water, earth materials, glaciers, animals and plants, alongside humans are all connected. We are all elements integrated within the gigantic natural system,” he said.

“This was part of my own internal discovery, but I realized that my personal (epiphany) was a reflection of what all of humanity needs to discover. If we discover that, it'll form an important part of the pathway forward to a more sustainable, healthier future.”

As an environmental documentarian, Balog noted that he has felt both compassion and frustration toward the human race “in equal amounts at the same time.”

“We've done what we've had to do using the tools that have come to us from this long arc of history. What homo sapiens have known how to do for thousands of years is burn things ― wood, grass, coal, oil and natural gas,” he said. “But at the same time, why can't we see now that this tradition that we've inherited has negative consequences? How can we shift to a different mindset?”

Against this backdrop, he hopes to continue producing works that can be a beacon of light in times of uncertainty, confusion and misinformation about the larger global conversation on climate activism ― a desire that he expressed in the form of his own future epitaph.

“'He shone a light into the darkness' ― that's what I'd like my tombstone to read. I want to keep shining a light and reshape the way we think and the way we see.”

Balog is one of more than 70 photographers who have been invited to this year's Xposure International Photography Festival, set to run from Feb. 9 to 15 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. His presentation and photo exhibition will center on his latest book, “The Human Element: A Time Capsule from the Anthropocene.”