Eternal Ice, Bieudron and Zmutt, Switzerland

Part of the ongoing Eternal Ice project, this hydropower photography took us into the Grande Dixence system. It’s a network collecting meltwater from 35 Valaisian glaciers. The water is pumped to 2,400 m and channelled through mountain tunnels to Lac des Dix, retained by a 285 m gravity dam. Most of the infrastructure is underground. Gravel traps, sand traps and pumping stations bored into the rock. At Bieudron, we photographed the power station that holds three world records: head height, turbine output and generator output per pole.

Inside the rock there is no daylight, the surfaces are wet and the exposures run long next to machinery that never stops. The installed lighting in the caverns carried most of the Eternal Ice hydropower photography. We added only what was needed to keep the scale readable.

A longer look at the Eternal Ice project in the Journal.

Part of our Reportage & Landscape work.