Documenting vanishing ice around the globe 🧊
Documenting vanishing ice around the globe 🧊
Plus: a Reader Question about how I learned photography.
Hello from my home province of Québec where I’m travelling with my family to visit our folks and spend time enjoying summer experiences in eastern Canada. I’ve cleared the decks to spend as much time in the mountains as possible when I get back to Banff (my favourite time of the year!). I look forward to creating new images in the Rockies and getting up to high elevations.
This month I’m excited to introduce you to a project that’s very close to my heart: Cryophilia. It’s been many years in the works already — a quest to document the world’s vanishing ice and celebrate the beauty of cold places. So far it’s a journey that has taken me around the world, from Antarctica to Greenland and even the most unlikely of places — like Uganda!
Here’s what else is in this month’s Fuelled by Creativity!
Upcoming: Image critique session.
Cryophilia Project Update: Two decades of glacial recession at Peyto Glacier.
Reader Question: Did you go to school for photography?
Bonus Video: Peyto Glacier
See you next month!
Coming Up…
Paid subscribers can access exclusive content, such as these Tips for Pricing Your Images for Licensing and Stock Sales. Coming up next is our next image critique session. Upgrade to submit an image for consideration for the next round and to access Paul’s critique.
“I really enjoy the wording of the improvement that I take home from these critiques.… Paul has a very empathetic tone that we can learn from. I liked all the images and the discussion around them.” — G. C.
Cryophilia Project Update
Bringing awareness to vanishing ice through the capturing of changing landscapes and ice features around the world.
Ever since I started in photography I have been fascinated by ice as a subject. At first glance, solid water may appear to be mundane as a subject. However, through extensive explorations at the high latitudes and cold parts of the planet, I've repeatedly marvelled at how ice can display an infinite array of textures, present ever-changing shades of blue and white, and interact with light in countless ways. Ice is never the same. In the face of that fact, I feel both fascination and heartache.
From ancient Greek meaning “frost loving,” cryophiles prefer or thrive at low temperatures.
It seems we’re only decades, maybe even a decade, away from some of this ice disappearing altogether. Some of the ice featured in my photographs taken just a few years ago is already gone. With rising temperatures, we risk the melting of our polar regions and our world’s glaciers. The implications of this are well-researched and documented. Many dedicated scientists are working to better understand what is happening and what is at stake. By and large, the practical consequences of melting ice are widely discussed — a role I leave to those who are qualified to speak about it. Where I feel I can best contribute is to use the power of photography to raise alarm at the loss of the aesthetics of ice and showcase its beauty for others to appreciate.
An example of glacial recession of the Peyto Glacier in Banff National Park. I took these two images nearly two decades apart.
Beyond the long-term human and environmental consequences of melting ice, for me, the loss of these frozen landscapes also signifies the loss of a unique, powerful experience. The stillness and silence of cold places are humbling and wonderfully eerie. The beauty in ever-changing and extraordinary ice features is a wonder to look at. It is a delight — and also a challenge — to capture with the camera. My calling as an artist is to continue to celebrate and document ice before it vanishes. Icescapes are among the most dynamic, exciting, and fascinating locations a photographer can hope to document. I consider it a privilege to be able to bring the beauty and mystery of these foreign, enchanting worlds to others.
Learn more at zizka.ca/cryophilia and follow the project on Instagram.
Reader Question of the Month
Want to ask something? Submit your question here!
Q: Did you go to school for photography? How did you learn?
The straightforward answer is: I did not! Instead, I created conditions that allowed me to spend hundreds of hours in the field. I spent that time learning to “see,” taking lots of bad pictures, experimenting and developing a spirit of self-critique.
My path is not necessarily the best path for everyone. I think it all comes down to how your brain works. Some people benefit from learning in a more formal, structured setting. I knew that, for myself, it would make more sense to save up, create a large block of time (I rearranged my life so that I could be in the field a lot for many months straight) and just go out and take hundreds of thousands of photographs. That's just how I happen to learn — through repetition.
Eventually, all of the fundamentals became second nature (settings and tools, for example) and I started spending more time on things like intention, vision and self-expression.
Bonus Video: Peyto Glacier
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Cryophilia Project - Documenting Vanishing Ice
Some call the lake at the terminus of the glacier Lake Munro after Scott Munro a researcher who did significant research in the area. I’m currently studying the impacts on downstream sedimentation due to the creation of this lake for my masters project.