Love Letters for Glaciers is a time capsule project, created with the participants of the 2017 field season of the Juneau Icefield Research Program. At the end of the expedition, each student, staff, and faculty member was invited to write their own “love letter for a glacier” and add it to a time capsule that I installed overlooking the JIRP basecamp and Gilkey Glacier.

On a particularly lovely evening, everyone gathered at the time capsule to contribute their letters. Small 3x3in cyanotype prints were exposing to light nearby, each beneath a small stone. Participants chose a stone from a print, added it to the cairn around the time capsule, and fixed their cyanotype print in water to stop the exposure process.

On the back of each print, I had written a unique 3-line poem. The poems are collaborative “love poems” – each line in the poem is a different phrase that she had recorded throughout the summer, either overheard from another member of the expedition or something I had been thinking about along the way.

The time capsule is set to be opened in 2046, after (almost) a full 30 year climate cycle has passed, and as a celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Juneau Icefield Research Program.