PROOF
THE BACKSTORY
A PHOTOGRAPHER SEES BUBBLES UNDER THE ICE THAT ARE
VISUALLY STRIKING—AND A MARKER OF CLIMATE CHANGE.YEAR AFTER YEAR, as autumn in Alaska
is ending, Ryota Kajita goes looking
for winter’s first ice. A Japanese-born
photographer living in Fairbanks,
Kajita believes that “everything—even
if it appears to be insignificant—
connects to larger aspects of our Earth.”
An example, he says, is the ice, after
it has frozen over ponds and lakes but
before it’s been obscured by snow.
Kajita has been shooting photos
through the ice since 2010 for his
project, Ice Formations. He’s capti-
vated by the geometric patterns he
sees: fizzy fields of bubbles under thefrozen surface, and snow and ice crys-
tals dusted across it. Many photos are
compositions of trapped, frozen bub-
bles of methane and carbon dioxide.
Though Kajita loves to photograph
the formations, their existence worries
him. As Earth’s northern regions warm,
the melting of permafrost accelerates.
That releases more methane, a harmful
greenhouse gas.
Kajita hopes people who see the
photos will “feel connected to nature”—
and that connection will help them
“face bigger issues, like global climate
change.” —PATRICIA EDMONDS“ The window of time to find ice patterns is brief,” says Kajita, “because all surfaces on the ground will
be covered once snow falls.”