This multimedia projection which I have titled "Finding The Last Songs" was created by me especially for the Explorer's Club. This is an aerial view of my work on "The Last Songs Of The Glaciers" from 2008 to 2011. This aerial view includes films and videos by Markus Casutt, films by FX Micheloud & C. Bucher, the program of Swiss Television as well as my original recordings and photography. This is the story of "The Last Songs Of The Glaciers" from many different points of view.
"As a glaciologist, I am working for many years with the cold elements on this earth, especially with alpine glaciers and permafrost. I was really impressed about the fact that I never perceived these sounds and pictures during the last few decades when I was working on glaciers as Julia Calfee has revealed them now in her project. Her recordings from the Last Songs of the Glaciers together with her fantastic pictures of the ice formations fascinated me very much."
Martin Hoelzle
- Professor in Physical Geography
- World Glacier Monitoring Service - National Correspondence
- Expert Commission for Cryosphere Monitoring, Scnat (Swiss Academy of Sciences) - vice-president
- Swiss Snow Ice and Permafrost Society - president
As Thomas Meier observes about this project:
"Outside of the inner Antarctic Circle, in all high altitude mountain-areas worldwide, we can find the melting ice sounds as recorded in Julia Calfee's "The Last Songs Of The Glaciers". The Länta-glacier in south-eastern Switzerland like many thousand other glaciers in Europe, Asia, South- and North America is extremely affected by global warming. The sound of the melting glaciers is not a fiction created by scientific reports, newspapers or television. As director and manager of a high alpine refuge these songs of the melting glaciers are a reality - for me every summer directly happening in front of my face. Watching the Länta-glacier disappear is a shock! The source of global warming is not only a natural progress. Melting glaciers are the result and consequences of human life and activity."
Thomas Meier - Director and Manager of the high alpine refuge Länta Hut - cartographer - President of Visit Vals (tourism and development office of Vals)
This multimedia projection which I have titled "Finding The Last Songs" was created by me especially for the Explorer’s Club. This is an aerial view of my work on "The Last Songs Of The Glaciers" from 2008 to 2011.
Genesis (How It All Came To Be)
In the beginning there were no glaciers. I found these majestic beings much later in my wanderings. I discovered the glacier songs as I walked the Alps in summer, stopping to listen to the smallest of underground streams, invisible, covered with thick grass and stones.
I became entranced with these water voices. Where did they come from, these voices - where do they originate? From way up there, the fingers pointed in the direction of the Länta mountain. I followed the direction of the pointing fingers, each day walking further, my recorder in my pocket and my camera not far away. On the way I found many extensions of the glacier: ice caves, ice tunnels, avalanches, seracs. First I explored and discovered all the extreme points of the glacier, the fingers of these old icemen.
As I moved upwards, one day I found a brook. The water noises were particularly sad and lost sounding. This brook asked me to follow and as I followed the brook it widened and became a river running over a bed of strange shaped stones that were thrown around in a violent pattern. These stones then became enormous, much bigger than me and stretched out in front of me like a sloping vertical wall. This river still called me to follow. The river itself was transformed into a smaller and deeper form like the main artery of heart.And I stopped.
Then I saw the glacier clearly but I waited, watching closely in the full moonlight and in the heat of the day as the glacier changed colours from white-white into off-blue. I felt the strength of this embattled warrior. After waiting I felt the magnetic force of this now deep stream and I went on upwards recording the river songs. Finally I stood on that old ancient ice full of the wisest wisdom. I heard the sounds of water rushing away forever, not soft sounds, but the sounds of this glacier disappearing forever, the ominous and unpoetic ugly sound of a washing machine in full cycle. I slowly climbed down over these cyclopean stones watching the streams of glacier water becoming a river that sweeps forever down the valley.
Julia Calfee
Upcoming Events
Presentation at Explorer's Club New York City
Monday March 12th 2012 - 6 p.m.
The Explorers Club , 46 E. 70th Street New York, NY 10021
Presentation of recently completed project on global warming "The Last Songs of the Glaciers". This photographic work with audio recordings of the melting glaciers will be presented both as audio slideshow and film.
Exhibition 14 May - 23 June 2010, Rheinfelden / Basel During Art 41 Basel from 16 - 20 June 2010
"THE CHAPEL WHICH SINGS GLACIER SONGS" in Rheinfelden is part of Julia Calfee's larger project entitled "The Last Songs of the Glaciers".
This project approaches the vast issue of global warming in an intimate and artistic manner, with more than 100 recordings of ice and glaciers melting away. The photographs will be shown as moving projections and the recordings of the melting glaciers are played back inside the chapel.
The Last Songs of the Glaciers. The Chapel which Sings Glacier Songs.
"The Chapel Which Sings Glacier Songs" Julia Calfee
Opening - 13 May 2010
Exhibition 14 May - 23 June 2010, Rheinfelden / Basel
During Art 41 Basel from 16 - 20 June 2010
"THE CHAPEL WHICH SINGS GLACIER SONGS" in Rheinfelden is part of Julia Calfee's larger project entitled "The Last Songs of the Glaciers". This project
approaches the vast issue of global warming in an intimate and artistic manner, with more than 100 recordings of ice and glaciers melting away.
The photographs will be shown as moving projections and the recordings of the melting glaciers are played back inside the chapel.
INSIDE, THE CHELSEA HOTEL PHOTOGRAPHED BY JULIA CALFEE
"People are always asking me what it's like to live in the Chelsea
Hotel. Not always easy. There are times I felt like a fly caught in
a spider's web, at risk of being eaten alive if I made the wrong
move. ..."
Photographs and text by Julia Calfee
Preface by Milos Forman
Published by powerHouse Books Designed by Pentagram Berlin: Justus Oehler
Edited by Antonin Kratochvil 81 large format photos, each with it's own inside story Click to view more info. Available on Amazon.com and bookstores worldwide.
Spirits and Ghosts: Journeys Through Mongolia
Photographs by Julia Calfee
Published by powerHouse Books New York
76 large format photos, format 12" x 9"
"These journeys in Mongolia took me 9,000 miles over five years. The
common element in all these voyages, even stronger that the ghosts, were
the spirits who live high and free with this land where nature still brings
mortals to their knees."
- Julia Calfee
All Photographs and text on this web site are copyrighted
and protected under United States and International copyright laws.
The photographs
and text may not be reproduced in any form, store or manipulated without prior
permission.
Bio 
