"On the trail of the glaciers" is a photographic-scientific project, which makes use of the contribution of specialized photographers and glacier scientists, and which combines photographic comparison and scientific research in order to analyze the effects of climate change. Through a series of expeditions on the most important mountain glaciers on Earth, which will eventually span a period of more than ten years, the project carries out glaciological measurements and new photographic shots that reproduce the same geographical point in the same period of the year as those taken by photographers -explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The retreat of the glaciers highlighted by photographic comparisons thus becomes a case study, to become aware of the consequences of climate evolution.

The aim of the project is to raise public awareness on climate change issues. The strong communication power of photographic comparisons combined with the results of scientific research will contribute to developing greater awareness of the impact of human activities on the climate and environment and, consequently, on the quality of human life.

This publication shows the results of the expeditions of this photographic-scientific project, held respectively in Alaska, the Karakorum and Caucasus mountains. Fabiano Ventura, mountain photographer and creator of the project, retraced, together with a team of glaciologists, the traces of the first photographers - explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to take new photographs portrayed from the exact point of view of those of the past and to carry out scientific measurements in the field. This comparison of more than a hundred years later between historical and modern photographs of glaciers, is a sensitive and important indicator of the climate changes taking place on our planet.

Published on the occasion of the 2014/15 exhibition at the Luigi Pigorini Prehistoric-Ethnographic National Museum, Rome