Glaciers: Photography Exhibition Dedicated to the International Year of Glacier Conservation
With 2025 declared the International Year of Glacier Conservation, the Transylvania Mountain Festival and Institut Français de Roumanie à Cluj teams are organizing the educational exhibition “GLACIERS – GHEȚARII” with photographs exhibited by jury members Dan Tăuțan, Alexandru Sava, and multiple winner of the TMF mountain photography trophy, French photographer Julia Roger-Veyer. The exhibition captures glaciers through the different perspectives of the three photographers.
The exhibition opening will take place on Thursday, November 20, at 4:45 p.m. in the courtyard of the Institut Français de Roumanie à Cluj.
The exhibition will be available between November 18 and November 18, during the working hours of the Institut.
Three free spirits, each traveling to a different corner of our planet, bring us here, in the center of Cluj, three different visions of the life of glaciers and the people around them.
Julia Roger-Veyer: The Remains and Abysses of Mer de Glace
Julia Roger-Veyer, who lives in the famous mountaineering valley of Chamonix, delighted us with the idea of a photo report entitled: “The Remains and Abysses of Mer de Glace.”
Julia describes the process by which, together with climbers, she explores the glacier in search of beautiful routes to climb and photograph. Mer de Glace, the famous glacier in Chamonix, is her favorite playground. “Through this series of photographs, I try to make people discover this element and encourage the conservation of these unique places. The contrast between the photos taken in the glacier, all in shades of blue with such pure ice, and those taken outside the glacier, with little climbers in the chaos of rock, shows the other side of the picture and the reality of the glacier’s retreat. I am sadly aware that I will probably be a helpless witness to the disappearance of the Mer de Glace by the end of my life. I experience the transformation of mountain ecosystems on a daily basis, as I have been living in the Chamonix valley for 20 years. This is an important message that I want to convey through my photographic work.”
Alexandru Sava: Ice Gems
Alexandru Sava, a photographer from Cluj and a true explorer at heart, offers us an itinerant perspective. As images are his preferred means of communicating the experiences and sensations of a time that seems to have stood still, Alex invites us to visit places we may never dream of reaching.
Crossing the labyrinth of the Tacul glacier, admiring the remains of Mer De Glace, we will reach the last glacier peak under Piz Badile. Poetic images that stand as rare witnesses to the millennia they have traversed. Flying to another continent, Alex invites us to admire the pure white of the glaciers beneath the Quitaraju peak in the Peruvian Andes. The starry sky, in contrast to the white of El Chopicalqui Mountain (6354 m) in the Cordillera Blanca, makes you feel as if you are breathing the high-altitude air. Suddenly, we return to the northern hemisphere at Jökulsárlón, the famous glacial lagoon in Iceland. The deep blue water is dotted with icebergs broken off from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, which is part of the mother glacier, Vatnajökull. The glacial lagoon flows into the Atlantic Ocean, leaving pieces of ice on a black sand beach. This is how we end our visit to the surreal Diamond Beach. Only at the end of our frozen journey do we all realize that every piece of ice broken off from the glaciers is a priceless gem of planet Earth.
Dan Tăuțan: Free Counterpoint
Dan Tăuțan, a photographer from Cluj and an eternal traveler through the mountains, brings a playful approach, relying on contrasts. His selection of photographs explores the potential of the contrast between light and darkness, between earth and ice, between organic and inorganic, between water and land, between the smallness of man and the immensity of the planet.
Dan transports the viewer directly to northern Scandinavia, where we can admire the slow flow of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier into Lake Jökulsárlón in Iceland. The sensation of cold and dampness is oppressive but attracts us with the immensity of the landscape. Arriving at Haugabreen, Norway, we admire the force of the Myklebustbreen glacier, which also produces deep crevasses in the steeper section. The moraines of the Briksdalbreen glaciers or the Kleivafossen glacier jacket are dynamic images that confirm the life of these glaciers. A new melody envelops us in Switzerland, with the tumultuous landscape of the Blüemlisalpfirn glacier and the massiveness of the Mönch peak. As if playing, we return to a bucolic setting in Jungfrau, where the alpine turmoil contrasts with the carefree life of grazing animals.
We therefore invite you to take a trip into the world of glaciers, together with your little ones, to better understand the climate changes that our planet, our only home in the vast universe, is going through!
- Exhibition curator: Diana Roșca.
- Poster graphics and outdoor exhibits: Gabriel Roșca.
- Organizers: TMF Association and Institut Français de Roumanie à Cluj
- Printing partner: PMA Invest
- Supporters: Garmin Romania x Cluj, 7Trek, Maramont