GREENLAND ICE SHEET, GREENLAND
Covering about 80 per cent of the world’s largest island, the Greenland ice sheet is the second greatest ice mass on earth, after the Antarctic ice sheet. Like its southern hemisphere counterpart, the Greenland ice sheet is being threatened by climate change. While the natural world is suffering, Greenland’s tourism industry has benefited. Not only has melting sea ice made Greenland more accessible for cruise ships, travellers are eager to experience landscape that is considered to have an expiration date.
The figures pictured may appear as though they have been digitally arranged on the inland ice, but in reality they are visitors to Greenland’s ice sheet, captured by Olaf Otto Becker. The image is part of the German photographer’s Above Zero series documenting traces of climate change on the ice sheet.
The series features portraits of meltwater rivers that appear on the ice due to global warming. To obtain the photos, Becker embarked on two expeditions during which he travelled 450km on foot in the melt zone of the Greenland inland ice. In this image, he captures tourists who have come to encounter traces of climate change and see the melting ice.
The image will be on display at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as part of its Civilisation, Photography, Now exhibition, which runs from 4 April – 5 July. The show presents the work of 100 of the world’s finest photographers, looking through their eyes at our global, connected society.