The Three Poles – A Photographic Journey to the Edges of the Earth
By Alfred Diebold
The idea for The Three Poles exhibition took shape during a preparatory conference for the International Year of Glacier Preservation (IYGP) 2025 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in July 2023. Listening to glaciologists, diplomats, and environmental experts speak about the disappearing cryosphere, I realized how strongly the Earth’s most extreme regions—the Arctic, Antarctica, the Himalayas and the high mountains of Central Asia—are connected through their vulnerability and their critical role in stabilizing our global climate.
These regions are often referred to as the Three Poles:
• The North Pole (Arctic)
• The South Pole (Antarctica)
• And the so-called Third Pole – the high mountain ranges of Asia, including the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Pamirs, and Tien Shan.
For more than four decades, I have been traveling through these remote and often harsh environments. I’ve crossed ice fields in the Arctic, stood on the frozen seas of Antarctica, hiked the high passes of Tibet and the Pamirs, and visited countless mountain communities in Central Asia, India, and Nepal. With every return, the changes became more visible: glaciers shrinking, ice thinning, ecosystems shifting, and people adapting—or struggling to adapt—to the new realities of a warming world.
Some of the photographs presented in this exhibition are over 40 years old, captured on early journeys that shaped my photographic path. Others are from the past 10 to 15 years, with a few taken very recently, in direct response to unfolding developments in the polar and mountain regions. The result is not a scientific study—but rather a visual chronicle, told through moments, faces, landscapes, and light.
This body of work aims to do two things:
First, it offers a glimpse into places few have the chance to visit. These are not easy destinations—logistically, physically, or politically. But they are worth seeing, because they matter de