Timo Lieber has spent a career documenting climate change in the Arctic by returning to the area and photographing the melting glaciers and changing landscape year after year - resulting in his THAW series. Lieber's shock at the fast and irreversible changes in the region motivated the artist to approach his documentation of this climate change in a more immediate way.
Wanting to capture the physical process of passage of time and record the traces of melting ice, Lieber creates large-scale cyanotype abstractions by using ice, sunlight and time to chart the metamorphosis of the melting ice rather than merely document the result. The physicality of the ice crystals melting on the surface of the paper leaves traces of its presence and records a new reality in its absence. Just as the glaciers melt in the Arctic to reveal a new landscape, Lieber's cyanotypes in the C-Blue series are a testament to his commitment to capturing what is lost, what will never be again.
The resulting works are haunting abstractions in varying tones of blue and white, utilising the foundational photographic process of the cyanotype to speak about contemporary issues of climate change and collective social responsibility.