Asia Society showcases the work of photographer and mountaineer David Breashears who, with Glacier Research Imaging Project (GRIP), has retraced the steps of renowned Himalayan mountain photographers of the past century to recapture images of mountains and glaciers from the same vantage points. Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya comprises Breashears’s recent photographs shown alongside corresponding historic images, revealing an alarming loss in ice mass over the intervening years. Open through through August 15, 2010.
David Breashears, Main Rongbuk, 2007 Asia Society
Breashears has retraced the steps of the 1921 British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition Team, using as a guide, the photos of surveyor and photographer Major Edward O. Wheeler and amateur photographer George L. Mallory, who would later perish attempting to reach Everest’s summit in 1924. Returning to the exact same vantage points, Breashears has meticulously recreated their shots, pixel for pixel. The photographs illustrate the severity of the loss of ice mass among the glaciers surrounding Mount Everest.
Known as the “Third Pole,” the Himalaya are home to the world’s largest sub-polar ice reserves. The meltwaters of these high altitude glaciers supply crucial seasonal flows to the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween, Irrawaddy, Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow rivers, which hundreds of millions of people downstream depend on for their livelihoods. If the present rate of melting continues, many of these glaciers will be severely diminished by the middle of this century.
Since 2007, David Breashears has been trekking and photographing in the greater Himalaya, most often to the glaciers surrounding Mount Everest, whose summit he has reached five times. His goal is no longer this highest peak, but a series of ledges and outcroppings scattered among the glaciers. Breashears’s photographs reveal a startling truth: the ice of the Himalaya is disappearing. GRIP is using the power of these images to raise public awareness and shape policy focused on mitigation and adaption to the climate crisis.
Rivers of Ice is organized by Asia Society Museum in partnership with GRIP, a project of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations and GlacierWorks.
About Asia Society Museum
Asia Society Museum organizes groundbreaking exhibitions of both traditional and contemporary Asian and Asian American art.
The Museum, located on Park Avenue and 70th Street in New York City, is known for its Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Collection of masterpiece-quality traditional Asian works.
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