The 100-year time lapse project, the work of aerial photographer Kieran Baxter, uses old archival photographs of glaciers to look back in time and compare them to footage today.
Mer de Glace, France. Photograph by Eduard Spelterini taken in 1909.
In 1909, Swiss-born Eduard Spelterini took off from Chamonix in a gas-filled balloon and flew over the Mer de Glace glacier before continuing onwards to Switzerland.
Spelterini gained his balloon license in 1877 and started taking a camera with him around 1893. Photographs from his many flights form a rare and valuable historical record from the days before helicopters, drones and Google Earth.
Baxter took one of Spelterini’s photographs of the Mer de Glace, taken in 1909 (shown above), and compared it to photographs he took along the same flight path from a helicopter. The difference between the two, which can be seen in the video above, is dramatic.
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