Elemental
RYCHENBACH, SWITZERLAND
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803 MILES
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PORTOBELLO
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The Glacier at Rosenlaui - Alison Baillie
Switzerland is a country full of scenery with a special atmosphere, often with water as a powerful elemental force. For this project I went to one of my favourite locations, Rosenlaui in the Bernese Alps, a place that has inspired me and given me comfort over the years. This photo is of the majestic Rosenlaui Glacier, glistening in the sunlight between jagged peaks, taken from beside the milky glacial waters of the Rychenbach.
The water here flows through lush pastures, used by farmers as summer grazing for their cattle, but from the glacier the meltwaters thunder down through an imposing gorge, carved out by the waters over the ages, before joining the river.
Although this area is now off the normal tourist track, in the nineteenth century it was visited and loved by many writers and artists. Conan Doyle’s book The Final Problem features the Rosenlaui Hotel and the spectacular Reichenbach Falls, which are a kilometre downriver and where Sherlock Holmes met his death.
Pre-Raphaelite artists were also fascinated by Rosenlaui and there are several paintings of the glacier by well-known painters. In these pieces of art, it is very noticeable that the glacier was twice the size that it is now – very telling evidence of the devastating effect of global warming and a reminder that we must all do everything we can to preserve water as an essential element of our environment.
Switzerland is a country full of scenery with a special atmosphere, often with water as a powerful elemental force. For this project I went to one of my favourite locations, Rosenlaui in the Bernese Alps, a place that has inspired me and given me comfort over the years. This photo is of the majestic Rosenlaui Glacier, glistening in the sunlight between jagged peaks, taken from beside the milky glacial waters of the Rychenbach.
The water here flows through lush pastures, used by farmers as summer grazing for their cattle, but from the glacier the meltwaters thunder down through an imposing gorge, carved out by the waters over the ages, before joining the river.
Although this area is now off the normal tourist track, in the nineteenth century it was visited and loved by many writers and artists. Conan Doyle’s book The Final Problem features the Rosenlaui Hotel and the spectacular Reichenbach Falls, which are a kilometre downriver and where Sherlock Holmes met his death.
Pre-Raphaelite artists were also fascinated by Rosenlaui and there are several paintings of the glacier by well-known painters. In these pieces of art, it is very noticeable that the glacier was twice the size that it is now – very telling evidence of the devastating effect of global warming and a reminder that we must all do everything we can to preserve water as an essential element of our environment.