TERRA TEMPORALIS

What appears if the ice disappears—and for how long?

TERRA TEMPORALIS explores the passage of time through the narrative of Alpine glacial retreat. By recording photographic "fingerprints" of melting ice and the raw earth left in its wake, the series captures rock surfaces carved over millennia, exposed to sunlight for the first time in thousands of years.

This newly uncovered ground offers a momentary glimpse into planetary history before vegetation takes hold, anticipating the inevitable planetary cycles that will one day cover the land in ice again.

The work bridges the gap between the ephemeral and the enduring, serving as a powerful reminder of nature's fragility and resilience.

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By capturing precise "fingerprints" of melting Alpine glaciers and the newly exposed bedrock mere days after the ice recedes, the work documents a profound transition. Geologic formations carved and hidden beneath flowing ice for millennia are revealed to the light for the first time in thousands of years. Yet this exposure is fleeting: pioneer vegetation quickly moves in to claim the exposed soil, initiating a process that will endure until the Earth eventually enters its next glacial epoch and ice once again reclaims the land.

These grand cycles of transformation—of becoming and decaying—unfold across vast timescales driven by elemental forces far larger than human comprehension.

Blurring the line between the ephemeral and the enduring, TERRA TEMPORALIS serves as a poignant reminder of both the fragility and resilience of our planet

Technical Description
Specific locations across the Alps were identified where recent glacial retreat has exposed bare bedrock previously covered by ice for millennia.

On site, a defined field on the rock surface was painted with a permanent matte black base to frame the selected area, followed by a bronze-oxidizing pigment applied to accentuate the fine grooves and linear striations carved into the rock by the flowing glacier.

The designated field was then surveyed, photographed, and recorded with precise GPS coordinates. In post-processing, the imagery was digitally isolated to highlight exclusively the glacial erosion structures embedded within the rock.