James Balog
Encyclopedia
James Balog is an American photographer whose work revolves around the relationship between humans and nature. For nearly 30 years, James Balog re-defined environmental photography, whether his subject was endangered animals, giant trees, or Arctic ice sheets.
He is the author of seven books, including, Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, published in March 2009. Among his other books are the spectacular 2004 release, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest, and Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife (1990), hailed as a major conceptual breakthrough in nature photography.
Balog is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers
(ILCP)
Balog's most recent project is a stunning look at the impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers. In 2007, Balog, who has a graduate degree in geomorphology, initiated the Extreme Ice Survey
, the most wide-ranging ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted. National Geographic magazine showcased Balog's work in June 2007 and June 2010, and the project is featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary Extreme Ice. Balog's latest initiative, Earth Vision Trust, is a new organization founded on the innovative methodology and cultural impact of the Extreme Ice Survey.
Balog has received many awards for his work, including a 2010 Heinz Award
and the Missouri School of Journalism's
Honor Medal for Distinguished Service for 2010. He was previously honored with the Aspen Institute's
Visual Arts & Design Award, the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the Leica Medal of Excellence, and the International League of Conservation Photographers
League Award. He was the North American Nature Photography Association's
"Outstanding Photographer of the Year" in 2008, and in 1996, he became the first photographer ever commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to create a full set of stamps. The documentary film A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn (2006) explores his thoughts about art, nature, and perception. He is also the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary, Chasing Ice.
He lives in the foothills of the Rockies above Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Suzanne, and daughters Simone and Emily.
and his eventual career as an image creator.
While working on his undergraduate degree at Boston College
, Balog became an avid adventurer. He made frequent trips to the White Mountains
of New Hampshire
and the wilderness rivers of Maine
, and would later graduate to larger climbing expeditions in the Alps
and Himalayas
, not to mention first ascents in Alaska
.
As his outdoor adventures evolved, Balog increasingly felt a need to document his experiences. He began carrying a camera on his trips and teaching himself photography along the way. While working on a master’s degree in geomorphology
at the University of Colorado
, he honed his photography skills during frequent climbing trips.
As the completion of his geomorphology degree neared, Balog felt a yearning to leave behind the statistical analysis and computer modeling so prevalent in his field. In order to pursue a more direct, hands-on connection with the natural world, he decided to switch from the numbers driven world of science to a life in nature photojournalism
. He began with a series of documentary photography assignments for various magazines,such as Mariah (the predecessor to Outside) Smithsonian and National Geographic. Work he continues today. Later, he would move into self-directed projects, many of which would ultimately lead to large format photography books. Over the years, Balog has tackled topics such as big-game hunting, endangered species
and North America
’s old-growth forests.
Balog’s work has primarily evolved as a combination of art, science and environmental documentary. Today, he views his imagery as exploring the “contact zone” between man and nature.
Among his many artistic influences, Balog counts Irving Penn
, Richard Avedon
, Carleton Watkins
, William Henry Jackson
, Edward Weston
, Robert Adams
, Lewis Baltz
, Eliot Porter
and Ansel Adams
. Outside of photography, he draws inspiration from the entire range of arts, including music
, literature
, painting
, filmmaking
, sculpture
and architecture
.
, Life
, Vanity Fair
, The New York Times Magazine
, Smithsonian
, Audubon
, Outside
and numerous trade publications, such as American Photo, Professional Photographer and Photo District News. He was a contributing editor to National Geographic Adventure and is the subject of the short film "A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn
". Assignments and personal projects have included documenting the aftermath of the 1980 eruption
of Mount St. Helens
, the 2004 tsunami
that devastated Southeast Asia
, Hurricane Katrina
’s collision with the American Gulf Coast, the effects of climate change on the world's glaciers and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster.
Balog has produced seven books: Wildlife Requiem, Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife, Anima, James Balog’s Animals A to Z, Animal, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest, and Extreme Ice, Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report.
A major enterprise of Balog’s in recent years has been the Extreme Ice Survey
. Since 2007, the project has used time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to illustrate the effects of global warming
on the earth’s glacial ice. Working with a team of scientists, videographers and extreme-weather expedition professionals, Balog and the EIS team installed 34 time-lapse camera systems at 18 locations in Greenland
, Iceland
, Nepal
, Alaska
, and the Rocky Mountains
. The cameras are programmed to photograph once an hour, every hour of daylight. The Extreme Ice Survey team then assembles the images into video animations that demonstrate the dramatic retreat of the glacier
s. Collected images are used for scientific evidence and as part of a global outreach campaign aimed at educating the public about the effects of global warming
.
Balog's most recent endeavor has been the expansion of the Extreme Ice Survey into the Earth Vision Trust. The Earth Vision Trust (EVT) combines art and science to explore a changing planet, preserve its memory for future generations and inspire social action now.
“I’ve basically devoted my career to looking at the relationship between humans and nature, and to looking at nature,” said Balog in an interview with Photo District News. “To me, that’s the core of my mission, and it has been and it will be until I pass out of this world. I want to do what I can to shift human understanding of who we are and what we are and how we should relate to all the rest of what’s on this planet. I want to crack through the veneer of the illusions that surround us and see inside reality more purely than you normally get to see. That’s the real witchcraft and voodoo of this artistic process we’re in. I hope that the work helps people to think and see differently—and ultimately, we can only hope, behave differently.”
With the Earth Vision Trust(EVT), Balog uses the skills and knowledge garnered from years of photojournalism and science to create compelling artistic, fact-based, innovative communication projects that compellingly illustrate key environmental issues facing our planet and society. As the EVT grows, it will also become a home for like-minded professionals endeavoring to promote better awareness about our connections with and impacts on planetary ecosystems.
Early in his career, Balog went through a period where he concentrated on man’s direct impact on nature. He produced a series on nuclear missile silos in the agrarian landscapes of the American West. He created numerous man-made landscape pictures. In Balog’s first book project, Wildlife Requiem, he examined the phenomenon of people killing animals for sport. Published in 1984, Wildlife Requiem shocked the photography establishment with its brutally graphic images.
“In a lot of my work I’m trying to make a commentary about humans encroaching on nature through their presence,” said Balog in an interview with Photo District News. “But I’m not so naïve as to think that my own presence is not an impact on the animals and plants and landscapes that I happen to enter. What I can do as a photographer, hopefully, is to help everybody else see their impact in a way that maybe they hadn’t before.” and thats about it
, environmental philosophy and Jungian psychology. ANIMA asks readers to imagine a healthier, more integrated relationship between humans and nature.
Extreme Ice Survey. The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) tells the story of a planet in flux. With innovative methodology that combines time-lapse imagery with cutting-edge science, EIS encompasses the world's most extensive ground-based photographic glacier study to date. More than 500,000 photographs reveal the extraordinary retreat of glaciers and ice sheets due to climate change, providing scientists with vital insights on glacier dynamics. Since 2007, EIS has installed 34 time-lapse cameras at 18 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Nepal, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. EIS also conducts annual or bi-annual repeat photography in Iceland, British Columbia, the Alps and Bolivia. A PBS documentary, National Geographic book, National Public Radio and numerous magazines and newspapers have featured the EIS team. In addition, EIS spreads the word of climate change and shrinking glaciers through public talks, a touring exhibition and displays in public venues, including Denver International Airport. EIS has appeared before Congress and in multimedia presentations at science and policy conferences around the world. For more information, visit www.ExtremeIceSurvey.org.
Earth Vision Trust.
Founded in the summer of 2010, the Earth Vision Trust (EVT) combines art and science to explore a changing planet, preserve its memory for future generations and inspire social action now. In much of the world, the natural environment of just a couple of generations ago was profoundly different from the environment we experience today. Similarly, much of what we see now will vanish by the time our grandchildren walk the Earth. EVT combines still photographs, video, and film with the written word and other media to preserve a visual record of fast-changing landscapes and critically endangered plants and animals. EVT disseminates this record to the global public using available forums, including the internet, electronic and print media, public presentations, and educational resources created for classroom use. As EVT grows, it will give voice to collaborators in a wide range of creative and scientific fields.
Holga series. Starting in 1997 and continuing intermittently through the present day, Balog has continued a series of photographs made with a Holga
camera. Holgas are inexpensive, medium-format 120 film toy cameras that are made in China
and appreciated for a low-fidelity aesthetic. Balog enjoys working with the imperfections in the exposures, such as vignetting
and blur, and makes them part of the pieces. He actually wants the camera to produce little defects that will inspire new creative revelations.
Survivors series. Balog endeavored to change people’s perception of endangered wildlife by altering the context in which the animals were viewed. To accomplish this, he shunned the obvious approach of capturing his subjects in nature with a telephoto lens and instead photographed the animals in non-natural settings, often against white backdrops, to emphasize their vulnerability.
Techno Sapiens series. Balog explored the concept of Homo sapiens becoming increasingly dependent on technology in his conceptual series “Techno Sapiens”. The portfolio includes images that range from techno-fashion portraits to photographs depicting people's techno-habitats. Balog used a variety of techniques to create images that illustrate the changing features of human nature, as well as humankind's increasing detachment from the natural world. The duality of the pictures, a tension between beauty and horror, mimics the ambivalence most people feel for technology.
Tree series. For the Tree series, Balog wanted to photograph some of world’s tallest trees in their full grandeur, but he realized that his subjects were far too large to capture in a single frame. So he devised a multi-frame approach of photographing the trees from the top down. The method was inspired by some of the lunar landing pictures from the NASA
missions during the 1960s. Balog would climb each tree, and then meticulously photograph them in sections as he rappelled downward. Later, he would create digital mosaics by stitching the images together using computer imaging software. Some images required up to three days of shooting, plus as many as six weeks of computer work to reassemble the final composition. The tree images eventually became a 2004 book release, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest.
He is the author of seven books, including, Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, published in March 2009. Among his other books are the spectacular 2004 release, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest, and Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife (1990), hailed as a major conceptual breakthrough in nature photography.
Balog is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers
International League of Conservation Photographers
The International League of Conservation Photographers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography...
(ILCP)
Balog's most recent project is a stunning look at the impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers. In 2007, Balog, who has a graduate degree in geomorphology, initiated the Extreme Ice Survey
Extreme Ice Survey
The Extreme Ice Survey documents rapid changes on glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. The Extreme Ice Survey uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to illustrate the...
, the most wide-ranging ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted. National Geographic magazine showcased Balog's work in June 2007 and June 2010, and the project is featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary Extreme Ice. Balog's latest initiative, Earth Vision Trust, is a new organization founded on the innovative methodology and cultural impact of the Extreme Ice Survey.
Balog has received many awards for his work, including a 2010 Heinz Award
Heinz Award
The Heinz Award is an award currently given annually to ten honorees by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards recognize outstanding individuals for their contributions in the five areas of: Arts and Humanities, the Environment, the Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, the Economy...
and the Missouri School of Journalism's
Missouri School of Journalism
The Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri in Columbia, claims to be the oldest formal journalism school in the world. Founded in 1908, only the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris established in 1899 may be older...
Honor Medal for Distinguished Service for 2010. He was previously honored with the Aspen Institute's
Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The...
Visual Arts & Design Award, the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the Leica Medal of Excellence, and the International League of Conservation Photographers
International League of Conservation Photographers
The International League of Conservation Photographers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography...
League Award. He was the North American Nature Photography Association's
North American Nature Photography Association
The North American Nature Photography Association or NANPA is an organization dedicated to photography of nature. Established in 1994, the association has more than 3,000 members currently. Several categories of membership are available, including discounts for students. It annually sponsors many...
"Outstanding Photographer of the Year" in 2008, and in 1996, he became the first photographer ever commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to create a full set of stamps. The documentary film A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn (2006) explores his thoughts about art, nature, and perception. He is also the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary, Chasing Ice.
He lives in the foothills of the Rockies above Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Suzanne, and daughters Simone and Emily.
History
Balog’s interest in nature originated in his early childhood. His fascination with wild places has affected everything he has done, including sports, exploration, the study of geologyGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and his eventual career as an image creator.
While working on his undergraduate degree at Boston College
Boston College
Boston College is a private Jesuit research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA. The main campus is bisected by the border between the cities of Boston and Newton. It has 9,200 full-time undergraduates and 4,000 graduate students. Its name reflects its early...
, Balog became an avid adventurer. He made frequent trips to the White Mountains
White Mountains (New Hampshire)
The White Mountains are a mountain range covering about a quarter of the state of New Hampshire and a small portion of western Maine in the United States. Part of the Appalachian Mountains, they are considered the most rugged mountains in New England...
of New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and the wilderness rivers of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, and would later graduate to larger climbing expeditions in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
and Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
, not to mention first ascents in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
As his outdoor adventures evolved, Balog increasingly felt a need to document his experiences. He began carrying a camera on his trips and teaching himself photography along the way. While working on a master’s degree in geomorphology
Geomorphology
Geomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
, he honed his photography skills during frequent climbing trips.
As the completion of his geomorphology degree neared, Balog felt a yearning to leave behind the statistical analysis and computer modeling so prevalent in his field. In order to pursue a more direct, hands-on connection with the natural world, he decided to switch from the numbers driven world of science to a life in nature photojournalism
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
. He began with a series of documentary photography assignments for various magazines,such as Mariah (the predecessor to Outside) Smithsonian and National Geographic. Work he continues today. Later, he would move into self-directed projects, many of which would ultimately lead to large format photography books. Over the years, Balog has tackled topics such as big-game hunting, endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
’s old-growth forests.
Balog’s work has primarily evolved as a combination of art, science and environmental documentary. Today, he views his imagery as exploring the “contact zone” between man and nature.
Among his many artistic influences, Balog counts Irving Penn
Irving Penn
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.-Early career:Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from which he was graduated in 1938. Penn's drawings were published by Harper's Bazaar and he...
, Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
, Carleton Watkins
Carleton Watkins
Carleton E. Watkins was a noted 19th century California photographer.Carleton Emmons Watkins was born in Oneonta, upstate New York. He went to San Francisco during the gold rush, arriving in 1851...
, William Henry Jackson
William Henry Jackson
William Henry Jackson was an American painter, Civil War, geological survey photographer and an explorer famous for his images of the American West...
, Edward Weston
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
, Robert Adams
Robert Adams (photographer)
Robert Adams is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid-1970s through the book The New West and the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape...
, Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz is a visual artist and well known photographer who became an important figure in the New Topographic movement of the late 1970s....
, Eliot Porter
Eliot Porter
Eliot Furness Porter was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of nature.-Early life:...
and Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
. Outside of photography, he draws inspiration from the entire range of arts, including music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, filmmaking
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
.
Career
Balog has been working in professional photography for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in National Geographic, The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
, Smithsonian
Smithsonian (magazine)
Smithsonian is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970.-History:...
, Audubon
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
, Outside
Outside (magazine)
Outside is an American magazine focused on the outdoors. The first issue debuted in September 1977 with its mission statement declaring that the publication was "dedicated to covering the people, sports and activities, politics, art, literature, and hardware of the outdoors..."Its founders were...
and numerous trade publications, such as American Photo, Professional Photographer and Photo District News. He was a contributing editor to National Geographic Adventure and is the subject of the short film "A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
". Assignments and personal projects have included documenting the aftermath of the 1980 eruption
1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens
The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California...
of Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is south of Seattle, Washington and northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a...
, the 2004 tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
that devastated Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
’s collision with the American Gulf Coast, the effects of climate change on the world's glaciers and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster.
Balog has produced seven books: Wildlife Requiem, Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife, Anima, James Balog’s Animals A to Z, Animal, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest, and Extreme Ice, Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report.
A major enterprise of Balog’s in recent years has been the Extreme Ice Survey
Extreme Ice Survey
The Extreme Ice Survey documents rapid changes on glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. The Extreme Ice Survey uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to illustrate the...
. Since 2007, the project has used time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to illustrate the effects of global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
on the earth’s glacial ice. Working with a team of scientists, videographers and extreme-weather expedition professionals, Balog and the EIS team installed 34 time-lapse camera systems at 18 locations in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
, Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
, Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, and the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. The cameras are programmed to photograph once an hour, every hour of daylight. The Extreme Ice Survey team then assembles the images into video animations that demonstrate the dramatic retreat of the glacier
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...
s. Collected images are used for scientific evidence and as part of a global outreach campaign aimed at educating the public about the effects of global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
.
Balog's most recent endeavor has been the expansion of the Extreme Ice Survey into the Earth Vision Trust. The Earth Vision Trust (EVT) combines art and science to explore a changing planet, preserve its memory for future generations and inspire social action now.
“I’ve basically devoted my career to looking at the relationship between humans and nature, and to looking at nature,” said Balog in an interview with Photo District News. “To me, that’s the core of my mission, and it has been and it will be until I pass out of this world. I want to do what I can to shift human understanding of who we are and what we are and how we should relate to all the rest of what’s on this planet. I want to crack through the veneer of the illusions that surround us and see inside reality more purely than you normally get to see. That’s the real witchcraft and voodoo of this artistic process we’re in. I hope that the work helps people to think and see differently—and ultimately, we can only hope, behave differently.”
With the Earth Vision Trust(EVT), Balog uses the skills and knowledge garnered from years of photojournalism and science to create compelling artistic, fact-based, innovative communication projects that compellingly illustrate key environmental issues facing our planet and society. As the EVT grows, it will also become a home for like-minded professionals endeavoring to promote better awareness about our connections with and impacts on planetary ecosystems.
Style
Balog’s artistic style varies between very clean, simple representations of his subjects and more impressionistic interpretations that illustrate his unconscious feelings about a scene. He tends to alter his treatments and techniques based on emotional responses to a subject and the circumstances surrounding his shooting.Early in his career, Balog went through a period where he concentrated on man’s direct impact on nature. He produced a series on nuclear missile silos in the agrarian landscapes of the American West. He created numerous man-made landscape pictures. In Balog’s first book project, Wildlife Requiem, he examined the phenomenon of people killing animals for sport. Published in 1984, Wildlife Requiem shocked the photography establishment with its brutally graphic images.
“In a lot of my work I’m trying to make a commentary about humans encroaching on nature through their presence,” said Balog in an interview with Photo District News. “But I’m not so naïve as to think that my own presence is not an impact on the animals and plants and landscapes that I happen to enter. What I can do as a photographer, hopefully, is to help everybody else see their impact in a way that maybe they hadn’t before.” and thats about it
On the Importance of Photography
Balog views photography as a form of visual evidence that carries tremendous potential for influencing people’s perception of the world around them. “I’ve believed for a long time that photographers are like the antennae of civilization,” he said in a Professional Photographer magazine article. “We are an integral part of the sensing mechanism of the human animal. We are out there feeling in the darkness, trying to see what’s around us and reveal what hasn’t been revealed before. Not all photographers work that way, but to me that’s one of the central elements of photography. I would like to think that passionate, involved photographers would be looking at the world and trying their hardest to speak about the important things that are going on today.”Notable projects
ANIMA series. Seeking to challenge humankind’s ancient cultural perception about its place in the world, Balog paired chimpanzees with a diverse range of humans and photographed a series of provocative portraits. The conceptual artwork draws on insights from a variety of fields, including visual artsVisual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
, environmental philosophy and Jungian psychology. ANIMA asks readers to imagine a healthier, more integrated relationship between humans and nature.
Extreme Ice Survey. The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) tells the story of a planet in flux. With innovative methodology that combines time-lapse imagery with cutting-edge science, EIS encompasses the world's most extensive ground-based photographic glacier study to date. More than 500,000 photographs reveal the extraordinary retreat of glaciers and ice sheets due to climate change, providing scientists with vital insights on glacier dynamics. Since 2007, EIS has installed 34 time-lapse cameras at 18 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Nepal, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. EIS also conducts annual or bi-annual repeat photography in Iceland, British Columbia, the Alps and Bolivia. A PBS documentary, National Geographic book, National Public Radio and numerous magazines and newspapers have featured the EIS team. In addition, EIS spreads the word of climate change and shrinking glaciers through public talks, a touring exhibition and displays in public venues, including Denver International Airport. EIS has appeared before Congress and in multimedia presentations at science and policy conferences around the world. For more information, visit www.ExtremeIceSurvey.org.
Earth Vision Trust.
Founded in the summer of 2010, the Earth Vision Trust (EVT) combines art and science to explore a changing planet, preserve its memory for future generations and inspire social action now. In much of the world, the natural environment of just a couple of generations ago was profoundly different from the environment we experience today. Similarly, much of what we see now will vanish by the time our grandchildren walk the Earth. EVT combines still photographs, video, and film with the written word and other media to preserve a visual record of fast-changing landscapes and critically endangered plants and animals. EVT disseminates this record to the global public using available forums, including the internet, electronic and print media, public presentations, and educational resources created for classroom use. As EVT grows, it will give voice to collaborators in a wide range of creative and scientific fields.
Holga series. Starting in 1997 and continuing intermittently through the present day, Balog has continued a series of photographs made with a Holga
Holga
The Holga is a medium format 120 film toy camera, made in China, known for its low-fidelity aesthetic.The Holga's low-cost construction and simple meniscus lens often yields pictures that display vignetting, blur, light leaks, and other distortions...
camera. Holgas are inexpensive, medium-format 120 film toy cameras that are made in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and appreciated for a low-fidelity aesthetic. Balog enjoys working with the imperfections in the exposures, such as vignetting
Vignetting
In photography and optics, vignetting is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation at the periphery compared to the image center. The word vignette, from the same root as vine, originally referred to a decorative border in a book. Later, the word came to be used for a photographic...
and blur, and makes them part of the pieces. He actually wants the camera to produce little defects that will inspire new creative revelations.
Survivors series. Balog endeavored to change people’s perception of endangered wildlife by altering the context in which the animals were viewed. To accomplish this, he shunned the obvious approach of capturing his subjects in nature with a telephoto lens and instead photographed the animals in non-natural settings, often against white backdrops, to emphasize their vulnerability.
Techno Sapiens series. Balog explored the concept of Homo sapiens becoming increasingly dependent on technology in his conceptual series “Techno Sapiens”. The portfolio includes images that range from techno-fashion portraits to photographs depicting people's techno-habitats. Balog used a variety of techniques to create images that illustrate the changing features of human nature, as well as humankind's increasing detachment from the natural world. The duality of the pictures, a tension between beauty and horror, mimics the ambivalence most people feel for technology.
Tree series. For the Tree series, Balog wanted to photograph some of world’s tallest trees in their full grandeur, but he realized that his subjects were far too large to capture in a single frame. So he devised a multi-frame approach of photographing the trees from the top down. The method was inspired by some of the lunar landing pictures from the NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
missions during the 1960s. Balog would climb each tree, and then meticulously photograph them in sections as he rappelled downward. Later, he would create digital mosaics by stitching the images together using computer imaging software. Some images required up to three days of shooting, plus as many as six weeks of computer work to reassemble the final composition. The tree images eventually became a 2004 book release, Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest.
Select Awards
- 2010 16th Annual Heinz Award with a special focus on global change http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/james-balog
- 2010 Fine Outreach For Science, GigaPanGigapanGigaPan is a collaborative project between Carnegie Mellon University and NASA Ames Intelligent Systems Division's Robotics Group with support from Google...
Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University - 2010 Missouri School of Journalism's Honor Medal for Distinguished Service
- 2009 First-ever recipient of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) Award
- NANPANanpa, also transliterated as nampa, in Japanese culture is a type of flirting and seduction popular among teenagers and people in their twenties and thirties. When Japanese women pursue men in a fashion similar to nanpa, it is called .-Etymology:...
Outstanding Photographer of the Year for 2008 - Leica Medal of Excellence
- First Prize, Nature Photography, World Press Photo Contest
- First Prize, Science Photography, World Press Photo Contest
- 2007 Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure
Distinguished Presentations
The Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) team has presented its multimedia story to policymakers around the globe.- April 2010, presentation to top policymakers in the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change
- January 2010, spoke for the third time before members of the U.S. Congress through the SEEC or “Green Coalition”
- Winter Olympics 20102010 Winter OlympicsThe 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
, important part of Samsung’s campaign as a major sponsor of the Vancouver Olympic Games, featuring an exhibition,international magazine ads and various public multimedia presentations. - December 2009, made seven presentations at the COP-15 United Nations Climate Change Congress in Copenhagen at the request of NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
and WWFWorld Wide Fund for NatureThe World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
. - September 2009, TED Talk, Extreme Ice Survey
- Other 2009–2011 audiences include the National Security AgencyNational Security AgencyThe National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
, the Federal Energy Regulatory CommissionFederal Energy Regulatory CommissionThe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the United States federal agency with jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates...
, the California Academy of SciencesCalifornia Academy of SciencesThe California Academy of Sciences is among the largest museums of natural history in the world. The academy began in 1853 as a learned society and still carries out a large amount of original research, with exhibits and education becoming significant endeavors of the museum during the twentieth...
, the National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic SocietyThe National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
, Earth DayEarth DayEarth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
on the Washington Mall (NASA pavilion), Scripps Institute and Rady School of ManagementRady School of ManagementThe Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego is a graduate-level business school offering full-time and part-time Master of Business Administration degree programs in addition to non-degree executive development programs, Ph.D.s and undergraduate courses including a...
(San Diego), the Field Museum (Chicago), the University of MissouriUniversity of MissouriThe University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
, Weber State UniversityWeber State UniversityWeber State University is a public university located in the city of Ogden in Weber County, Utah, USA. It was founded in 1889 and is a coeducational, publicly supported university offering professional, liberal arts and technical certificates, as well as associate, bachelor's and master's degrees...
, Ogden, Utah; Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center (Juneau, AK), Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm executives, scientists at the International Polar Year conference (Oslo), NASA/Goddard, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsThe American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...
.
Books
- Wildlife Requiem (International Center of Photography, New York, 1984) ISBN 0-933642-06-7
- Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife (Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1990) ISBN 0-8109-3908-8
- Anima (Arts Alternative Press, Boulder, Colo., 1993) ISBN 0-9636266-0-4
- James Balog’s Animals A to Z (Chronicle, San Francisco, 1996) ISBN 978-0-8118-1339-6
- Animal (Graphis, New York, 1999) ISBN 9781888001808
- Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest (Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 2004) ISBN 978-1-4027-2818-1
- Extreme Ice, Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report (National Geographic Books, Washington DC, 2009) ISBN 978-1-4262-0401-2
See also
- Earth Vision Trust
- Extreme Ice SurveyExtreme Ice SurveyThe Extreme Ice Survey documents rapid changes on glaciers across the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. The Extreme Ice Survey uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography and video to illustrate the...
- Nature photographyNature photographyNature photography refers to a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures...
- Wildlife photographyWildlife photographyWildlife photography is the act of taking photographs of wildlife.Wildlife photography is regarded as one of the more challenging forms of photography. As well as needing sound technical skills, such as being able to expose correctly, wildlife photographers generally need good field craft skills...
- PhotojournalismPhotojournalismPhotojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
- Global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- Climate changeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
- Glaciers
- conservation photographyConservation photographyConservation photography is the active use of the photographic process and its products, within the parameters of the journalistic activity, to achieve concrete conservation outcomes in the context of the biocultural landscape....
External links
- Earth Vision Trust
- Extreme Ice Survey
- James Balog
- James Balog's Animals A to Z
- National Geographic
- National Geographic Adventure
- National Geographic Adventure Extreme Ice Survey Gallery
- Nikon
- Nikon Pro Challenge Video
- PDN Legends
- PDN Masters Series
- Photographic Image
- Rocky Mountain News
- Rowell Award