Chasing Climate Change in the Arctic

A documentary photography project made in Svalbard, Norway — one of the most climate-sensitive environments on the planet. Shot across multiple modes of access including small aircraft, research vessel, rigid inflatable, and on foot, the series documents the physical evidence of accelerating Arctic change alongside the scientists, guides, and infrastructure operating at the edge of a warming world. Nine images. One argument: the ice is losing.

Chasing Climate Change in the Arctic
©UN Photo/ Rick Bajornas
The Arctic is the fastest-warming region on Earth — but statistics don't bleed. You have to go there.
This project documents a journey through the Svalbard archipelago, where the evidence of a shifting climate isn't measured in data points but read directly in the landscape: glaciers calving into open water, mountain peaks emerging from retreating snowfields, seabirds circling ice that may not exist a generation from now.
Shot across sea, air, and land — from a small plane banking over snow-buried peaks to a rigid inflatable running the face of a tidewater glacier — these images trace the human relationship to a place at the edge of irreversible change. Scientists scan the horizon for polar bears. Satellite dishes listen to the sky. And in the quiet interior of a wooden structure at the top of the world, two windows frame what remains.
The Arctic does not ask for sympathy. It simply shows you what is happening.
↑Back to Top