Slack, Jeff. "Through a Glacier, Darkly: Landscape and Culture in Chamonix, France." November 2009.
Jeff Slack is a candidate in the MA-History program at the University of Northern British Columbia. The idea for his master’s thesis project - “The Cultural History of Glaciers: Mount Waddington Region” - came to him while on a glacier near Chamonix, a few weeks after most of these photographs were taken.
If one accepts that landscape and culture have reciprocal influences, then it follows that especially dynamic and powerful landscapes are likely to contain people with a strong, distinct cultural identity. The people of France’s Chamonix Valley - surrounded by an alpine skyline dominated by massive glaciers and Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps – are intensely proud of a cultural heritage that includes the genesis of mountaineering and extreme skiing, among other innovations. The following slidecast recounts the author’s impressions from a six-month stay in Chamonix, revisited through photographs taken by his brother during a visit that spring.
