James Balog
James Balog Born (1952-07-15) July 15, 1952 (age 62) Danville, Pennsylvania, U.S. Nationality American Occupation Photographer James Balog (pronounced BAY-log; born July 15, 1952) is an American photographer whose work explores the relationship between humans and nature. Since the early 1980s Balog has photographed such subjects endangered animals, North America’s old-growth forests, and polar ice. His work aims to combine insights from art and science to produce innovative, dynamic and sometimes shocking interpretations of our changing world. Balog’s best-known project explores the impact of climate change on the world’s glaciers. In 2007 he initiated the Extreme Ice Survey, the most wide-ranging ground-based photographic glacier study ever conducted. National Geographic magazine showcased Balog's ice work in June 2007 and June 2010, and the project is featured in the 2009 NOVA documentary Extreme Ice[n 1] as well as the 75-minute film Chasing Ice, which premiered in January 2012. Balog’s book Ice: Portraits of the World’s Vanishing Glaciers summarizes the work of the Extreme Ice Survey through 2012. Balog has received many awards for his work, including a 2010 Heinz Award, the Aspen Institute's Visual Arts & Design Award, the Rowell Award for the Art of Adventure, the Leica Medal of Excellence, and the International League of Conservation Photographers League Award.[citation needed] He was the North American Nature Photography Association's Outstanding Photographer of the Year in 2008[citation needed] and PhotoMedia’s Person of the Year for 2011. In 1996 he became the first photographer ever commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service to create a full set of stamps.[citation needed] He is the author of seven books, including Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report (2009), Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest (2004), and Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife (1990), hailed[according to whom?] as a conceptual breakthrough in nature photography. Balog is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a Sustainability Ambassador for The North Face.[citation needed] He lives in the foothills of the Rockies above Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, Suzanne, and daughters Simone and Emily.