An eroding glacier in the Himalayas. Photo Copyright David Breashears, GlacierWorks.
Looking at the magnificent Rongbuk glacier today, it’s hard to see anything disconcerting. But compared to photographs of the same spot taken 90 years ago, it’s obvious that a massive amount of ice has disappeared. Mountaineer and photographer David Breashears is determined to document this “alarming” loss in a new series of photos from the highest point in the world.
Commissioned by the Asia Society (AS), a team of scientists, conservationists and photographers traveled to Tibet to capture images of the glaciers surrounding Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.
The team used as their guide photographs captured by British climber George Mallory in 1921, images taken in the exact same spots nearly 90 years ago. What they reveal, says the AS, is “a startling truth: the ice of the Himalayas is disappearing.”
A new exhibit at the Asia Society in Manhattan, dubbed “Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya,” shows the melting trend as well as Breashears painstaking retracing of Mallory’s photographic expedition. Breashears, who directed the Imax film “Everest,” says the particularly difficult part of the project was figuring out how to get to the exact locations where Mallory took the photographs.
“I’ve climbed Everest five times, and I would rather do that again than reach some of these photo points,” Breashears told the New York Times. In one instance, he and his team spent 19 days (having to return to base camp three out of four times) trying to get one perfect shot.
“Climbers, they choose good routes,” he said. “A photographer chooses a position; a vantage point.”
Also in the AS exhibit is a collection of work from famed landscape photographer Vittorio Sella, who made a career out of photographing the most famous mountains in the world.
The show runs through August 15.
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