ES WERDE SCHNEE
A Search for Traces of Snowmaking in Alpine Landscapes
A white slope carries an image of winter. In Es werde Schnee, I followed what it takes to maintain that image: snow cannons, reservoirs, pipelines and pumping systems, and the water and energy needed to keep them running.
I worked in Alpine regions in Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. In a warming climate, snowmaking helps sustain skiing when natural snowfall alone is no longer enough. Its infrastructure also changes the landscape. A place is altered so that it can continue to offer an experience of nature.
Once on the slope, machine-made snow can look much like natural snow. The difference lies in how it comes to be there, and in the systems that make its presence possible. I was interested in how our expectations of winter guide what is built, altered and maintained in the mountains. Producing snow also means keeping a particular idea of the Alps in place.
Throughout the project, I was concerned with snow, its disappearance and the effort to prolong its presence, and with what we call natural in a landscape increasingly organised around the production of winter.
EXHIBITIONS
2019 – Chobi Mela Festival, screening, Dhaka, BD
2021 – Galerie für Fotografie, group show, Hannover, DE
2021 – Sparkassenstiftung Lüneburg, solo show, Lüneburg, DE
2022 – 12. Wiesbadener Fototage, group show, Wiesbaden, DE
AWARDS
2020 – VGH Fotopreis, winner
2021 – PUNKT Journalist Award, German Academy of Science and Engineering
2022 – True Picture Award, nomination
Images from the project have been published in Die Zeit, Zeit Campus, Falter, Datum, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
