Focus on glaciers : a geo-photo exposition on the vanishing beauty

Abstract. The encounter of scientific research, respect for the environment, and passion for photography created, throughout the years, an exceptional heritage of images shot by researchers and technicians of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS, during the scientific expeditions all over the world. The OGS researches in the fields of Earth and Ocean Sciences, to widen the scientific knowledge, to raise the environmental awareness and conservation of natural resources, and to mitigate the natural risks. In this paper, we describe the exposition of artistic pictures that we set up to draw the attention of the general public to the effects of global warming. In our exhibition, the glaciers run the performance, with the infinite grey-blue shadows, the shapes, worthy of a great sculptor, the contact with the rock or the sea, sometimes sharp and dramatic, sometimes so nuanced to appear as a water-colour. The beauty of the images attracts the attention of the public on unknown realities and allows us to document the dramatic retreat of the Alpine glaciers, and to show the majesty of the Arctic and Antarctic landscapes jeopardised by the climate change. Glaciers are, in fact, almost all in a negative mass-balance, and with the present warming trend, they will vanish. The authors were present at the exhibition, and the visitors could satisfy their curiosity on the research issues, the context in which the pictures were shot, technical details, or aesthetic choices. The choice of the location allowed to reach a broad public of adults, in the working-age, often challenging to reach. The paper presents a summary of this experience, of importance both for the authors and the visitors.