It can be hard to visualize Earth's shrinking glaciers, but Simon Norfolk makes it easy. He drew a rippling line of fire to outline where a mighty glacier once stood on Mount Kenya, revealing just how far it has receded. His stunning photographs highlight the enormous impact climate change is having on our planet.
When I Am Laid in Earth was created some 16,000 feet above sea level, where the air was thin and frigid and the work exhausting. Norfolk used long exposures and a burning rake dragged across the rocky landscape to create a fiery outline to show just how far Lewis glacier---the largest of 11 on the mountain---has retreated.
The glacier’s melting has been mapped since 1934, so the perimeters were easy for Norfolk to follow. Once nearly a mile in length, Lewis glacier has shrunk 90 percent in the last 80 years. Kenya contributes very little to global warming, yet its iconic mountain is suffering the consequences. Norfolk's photos reveal just how high a price has been paid.
"I was trying to pull the histories out of the land and expose its layeredness," says Norfolk.
The photographer climbed Mount Kenya with a videographer and two guides. Every detail was meticulously planned months beforehand. Norfolk had to climb in October before it got too snowy, and had just a few nights to shoot in the ambient light of the full moon. He tested several kinds of flames, eventually choosing a piece of rolled up gasoline-soaked carpet attached to a rake. To trace the path of the glacier, Norfolk hid small flashlights amid the rocks so he knew exactly where to walk.
The camera was mounted on a tripod with the shutter open, taking unusually long exposures as the photographer followed the meandering path. The thin air of that elevation made for slow going, as Norfolk could trudge for just 20 minutes before being completely worn out. He and his team also endured temperatures well below freezing. They weren’t allowed to make campfires---they were in a national park---and gear would get too cold and fail. "It was desperately frustrating," Norfolk says.
Norfolk made the series in collaboration with Project Pressure, an environmental non-profit documenting the effect of climate change on glaciers worldwide. Before the project, Norfolk hadn’t paid much attention to global warming. But he’s now keenly aware of the issue. Like famed British poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley before him, Norfolk was awed by what he saw, and saddened that it may vanish forever.
"It seemed particularly fitting to be an Englishman finding the last tragic, romantic remains of this glorious glacier and seeing its final days as it shuffles off," he says.
