Mitja Kobal

SCHLATENKEES
2019–2026

A seven-year photographic record of the retreat of Schlatenkees glacier in East Tyrol, Austria.

2019

2022

2024

2026

Schlatenkees, 2019–2026

I first reached Schlatenkees in 2019, almost by accident. I arrived in darkness and low cloud, without really knowing what the landscape around me looked like. I made a long exposure, and the photograph revealed the glacier before I could properly see it myself.

What began as a single visit became a long-term photographic record.

I returned in 2022, twice in 2024, and again in 2026, photographing many of the same parts of the glacier and surrounding basin. With every visit, the landscape had changed. The glacier tongue retreated, exposed rock replaced ice, meltwater expanded into a lake, and fragments of the lower glacier gradually disappeared.

By 2026, the lower tongue I had first photographed seven years earlier was gone. A large glacial lake now occupies much of the space where the ice once stood, while fragments of the glacier remain higher in the basin.

Seven years is a very short time for a landscape.

At least we have the photographs to remember it by.

Project dates
2019 / 2022 / 2024 / 2026

Location:
Schlatenkees, Venediger Group, East Tyrol, Austria

Production note:
Parts of the long-term documentation were produced in collaboration with Greenpeace Austria.

Award:
2nd Place, Photograph of the Year
International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2022

Selected publication & press:
Tirol Magazin, Der Standard, ORF, Kronen Zeitung, Salzburger Nachrichten, among others.

Editorial publication & licensing enquiries
kobal@mitjakobal.com