MELT

MELT plunges us into a world of snow and ice, landscapes of stunning beauty that are quietly vanishing. Nikolaus Geyrhalter follows the people whose lives are intertwined with glaciers and snowfall, revealing how climate change is reshaping both nature and daily life.

Along the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route in Japan, bulldozers carve out spectacular, 16-metre-high walls of snow in order to build corridors specifically to attract tourists, while the celebrated ski region Val-d’Isère in southern France uses artificial snow to create a winter wonderland. In Switzerland, snowplows carve furrows into the glaciers in order to preserve the snow for the coming winter sports season, and in Iceland visitors pose in front of gigantic blocks of ice that are gradually being swallowed by the sea. Everything seems normal – but behind the apparently perfect white façade, the world’s ice and snow are melting at an alarming rate. 

Traveling from the Alps to Japan, Canada, Austria, Iceland, and even a research station in Antarctica, Geyrhalter captures the different destinations’ vast white landscapes in wide, tranquil shots that allow the land to speak for itself. Everywhere, his protagonists tell of the gradual disappearance of snow and ice, melting glaciers, and increasingly extreme weather conditions – and reveal how they experience climate change in their everyday lives and work.