Ten years ago, Michel Comte gave up his career as a fashion photographer in order to fully devote himself to his private passion and give life to his broadest project to date. Comte, who is an expert climber and pilot, started photographing and depicting glacial environments 30 years ago, constantly carrying out his research for three decades.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE “LIGHT”, photographic work by Michel Comte, through 10 December 2017, MAXXI Museum, Rome maxxi.art

Light consists in the study of natural landscapes through large sculptures, photos, video installations and projections. Comte went back to the same places for more than ten years to document even the tiniest changes in light and landscape.

His depictions of glacial landscapes defy the tradition of landscape photography by alternating close-ups and partial details with panoramic views and abstract, evocative structures, thereby unveiling the unpredictable and frosty nature of these giants.

By counterpoising the gradual disappearance and fragility of glaciers to their strength, mysteriousness and monumentality, the cold violence of these images cannot but elicit fear, anger and frustration in those who witness the erosion and loss of such important natural heritage.

Comte shows us the glacial landscapes of Switzerland, Nepal, Tibet and the US. For this long-term project—the photographs of which were mostly taken from open helicopters—Comte periodically returned to the same places over the course of a decade to record the alterations in landscape and light patterns.

The sequential arrangement of the images reveals the breathtaking variety of high-lying, remote corners of the globe that are unknown and inaccessible to most of us. But it also gives undeniable evidence to the destructive impact of climate change and the ever more rapid disappearance of this surreal and savage world. Defying the allure of classical landscape photography, Comte effectively alternates close-up and partial details with occasional panoramic views and abstract, vaguely suggestive structures and ambiances to expose the unpredictable, moody nature of these landscapes.

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