A search for clues in the context of artificial snow production and alpine landscape: Despite rising temperatures and a lack of winter precipitation, the commercialization of alpine valleys as ski destinations is increasing. Artificial snow production plays a key role in this process. In the future, it is foreseeable that slopes will exclusively be groomed with artificial snow. Infrastructures, energy and water consumption required for this have an enormous impact on local ecosystems.

In the process, artificial snow blurs the line between nature and construction. Visually almost indistinguishable from natural snow, it creates artificial experience spaces where there would be none without it. The limits of feasibility are extended, alpine landscapes are irretrievably altered, and artificial snow worlds are created far away from them. The significance of artificial snow goes far beyond its purely economic relevance.

Holzknecht Elias.Born in 1993 in Tyrol, Austria. Studies photojournalism and documentary photography in Hannover. He works on freelance projects and lives between Hannover, the Ötztal and Graz. For his project “Let there be snow” he received the VGH sponsorship award in 2020 and the PUNKT journalism award of the German Academy of Science and Engineering in 2021.

eliasholzknecht.at

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