James Balog

James Balog (born July 15, 1952 ) is an American nature photographer , geoscientist and mountaineer , who is known for publications in the magazines National Geographic , The New Yorker , Life and Vanity Fair as well as the documentary Chasing Ice . He founded the Earth Vision Trust with the aim of making the effects of global warming visually tangible for the general public in order to raise awareness of the risks of climate change.

life and work

James Balog studied geography and geomorphology at Boston College and the University of Colorado , where he received his master's degree in 1977.

1980s and 1990s

In the 1980s and 1990s he became internationally known for his photographs of endangered and hunted animals. In addition, he dealt with the topic of "people and technology". From 1998 to 2004 he almost exclusively photographed trees and worked a lot with photo montage .

Extreme Ice Survey and documentary Chasing Ice

The documentary Chasing Ice portrays the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) project started by Balog in 2007 and received the Award for Excellence in Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival 2012 . As part of the EIS project, Balog and his team photographically documented the progressive melting of various glaciers over several years. In addition, the longest video recording of a calving glacier to date was made . The calving of the Ilulissat Glacier in West Greenland took 75 minutes and resulted in the glacier retreating about one mile over a width of about three miles.

Exhibitions

James Balog's works have been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , the Corcoran Gallery of Art , and the Denver Art Museum , among others .

Awards

Balog received various awards, including a .:

• Leica Medal of Excellence
• Heinz Award (2010)
• Honor Medal for Distinguished Service from the Missouri School of Journalism
• Visual Arts & Design Award from the Aspen Institute
• Outstanding Photographer of the Year Award from the North American Nature Photography Association
• Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure
• Photographers League Award from the International League of Conservation.

Balog also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta and the Presidential Citation for Science and Society from the American Geophysical Union .

Works

Books

• ICE: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers , Rizzoli, 2012, ISBN 978-0847838868
• Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report , National Geographic Books, Washington DC, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4262-0401-2
• Giant trees , Munich: Frederking & Thaler, 2006, ISBN 3-89405-657-6 ( Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest , 2004)
• Animal , Graphis, New York, 1999, ISBN 978-1-888001-80-8
• James Balog's Animals A to Z , Chronicle, San Francisco, 1996, ISBN 978-0-8118-1339-6
• Anima , Arts Alternative Press, Boulder, Colo., 1993, ISBN 0-9636266-0-4
• Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife , Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1990, ISBN 0-8109-3908-8
• His Wildlife Requiem , International Center of Photography, New York, 1984, ISBN 0-933642-06-7

Movies / TV

James Balog was involved in the following films / series:

• Chasing Ice (Director: Jeff Orlowski), documentary, 2012.
• Icy Worlds (Speaker / Presenter: David Attenborough ), BBC Documentary Series, 2011.
• Extreme Ice (Director: Noel Dockstader), documentary, 2009.
• The Human Element (Director: Matthew Testa), documentary, 2018.

reception

"Each new series by James Balog represents a quantum leap in creativity, which takes us deeper into the ultimate mystery of humanity's relationship to the natural world. He is a visionary and his works are like sacred objects. "

- James Nachtwey

Web links

• Homepage of James Balog
• National Geographic : Brief biography of James Balog
• Biography on artnet.de .
• Earth Vision Trust (founded by James Balog)
• Dennis Nishi: Turning a Lens to Climate Change . Interview with James Balog. In: The Wall Street Journal , November 26, 2009, accessed October 4, 2013.
• Photo District News: Interview with James Balog (PDF, accessed October 4, 2013; 174 kB).
• TED : James Balog: Time-lapse evidence of glacial retreat. Video (19 min 20 sec), accessed on October 4, 2013.
• Greenland's ice is melting away , photo series by James Balog on the article Greenland: The great thaw . In: National Geographic , issue 7/2010, accessed October 5, 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ LCCN entry
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} James Balog (homepage) , accessed on October 4, 2013.
3. ↑ Eart Vision Trust: Mission and Vision ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 4, 2013. 
4. ↑ Biography on artnet.de .
5. ↑ Arno Widmann: Review of giant trees on perlentaucher.de , accessed on October 4, 2013.
6. ↑ Extreme Ice Survey ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Project homepage, accessed on October 4, 2013.  
7. ↑ Chasing Ice - Homepage for the documentary, accessed on October 4, 2013.
8. ^ 'Chasing Ice,' and searching for solutions. In: Harvard Gazette , September 20, 2013, accessed October 4, 2013.
9. ↑ James Balog . National Geographic , archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on July 13, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).  
10. ↑ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/extreme-ice.html
11. ↑ http://extremeicesurvey.org/team-eis/