There is a glacier in Iceland, Solheimar, which has retreated a great deal, and every time I go back there and see what's not there any more, it does something to the heart. It makes you realise it's possible for a gigantic natural element to just disappear.
James BalogI personally spend the majority of my time by far on outreach and education and fundraising and administration.
James BalogI've been to the Himalayas a half a dozen times and I love it. I'm just kind of tired of going literally twelve time zones around the world. I would rather go six time zones and get to Iceland or whatever it is.
James BalogUltimately, we have to ask ourselves an essential spiritual and ethical question: Are we the kind of people who take everything for ourselves and leave nothing for others, or do the angels of our better nature still live? I believe the angels are still alive.
James BalogEarly in my career I discovered that there was something really special about photographing at night that places your mind on the surface of the planet. Youโre no longer just a human being walking around in the regular world. Youโre a human animal striding around on the surface of the planet thatโs out in the middle of the galaxy. We as a culture, weโre forgetting that we are actually natural organisms and that we have this very deep connection and contact with nature. You canโt divorce civilization from nature. We totally depend on it.
James BalogIn some cases, I allow the edge of the set, the edge of my own artificial, artistic imposition, to show up because I don't want to hide from that. I want to acknowledge that there is a living human and a living eye and a living mind and a living heart responding to what's going on out there.
James Balog