Two jackdaws fly high above the Konkordiaplatz in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. My vantage point is even higher: from the terrace of the Konkordia Hut, which is named after this place at an altitude of 2,700 meters, where several glaciers meet and flow further down into the valley as the Great Aletsch Glacier. Although the ice is still almost 500 meters thick at this point, the rapid retreat of the glacier, accelerated by climate change, has meant that the Konkordia Hut is now only accessible via more than 500 steps of a steel staircase fixed into the rock. Between the open crevasses, you can see traces of ski tourers, of which I am one during my days there. The photo was taken late one afternoon in April 2024 during a multi-day ski tour.

The Blaueis Glacier in the north face of Hochkalter in the Berchtesgaden Alps is one of the last remaining glaciers in the German Alps. The mountain is not nearly as prominent as the neighboring Watzmann massif. It is usually climbed with an overnight stay at the Blaueis Hut.

New York is a place in the world that I long to visit many times, before and after the attacks of 9/11. The first time was when I was still in elementary school with my parents on our way west to Japan, where we went the second time for several years. I remember how, as a child, I was fascinated by the then still very powerful yellow cabs, was overwhelmed by the noise in the streets and the very American steak that I ate at night in our small hotel room, sleepless from jet lag. This photo was taken many years after September 11th. The binoculars installed in Liberty State Park still list the no longer existing World Trade Center as one of the landmarks, and there is a helicopter above One World Trade Center.

The Picos de Europa mountain range rises to heights of up to 2500 meters. Due to its location almost directly on the northern Spanish coast, it is the first sight of Europe for many sailors arriving from the Atlantic, even from a great distance away. Alpine pasture farming is a tradition here, as it is in the Alps. I wasn't sure whether this cow was a sculpture or a real living animal.

On the first morning I spent in the Atacama Desert with a group of European travel journalists, we were led to the Valle de la Luna, or Valley of the Moon. During the guided pre-dawn hike through the bizarre, vegetation-free landscape, the actual moon rose.

The Allgaeu Alps near Balderschwang are considered Bavaria’s Siberia due to their cold climate and abundance of snow. In the winter of 2021, it was not permitted to cross the border into Austria for several weeks due to quarantine travel restrictions of the pandemic. During this time, my wife @ulrikefroemel and I limited our ski touring to the Bavarian Alps. At the beginning of January, on my birthday, we climbed a mountain close to Balderschwang on touring skis with a local friend and his family. Initially hidden behind a blanket of ice fog the morning sun finally found the strength to break through to reach us.

One of two drone images in the exhibition. The photo, shot from a top-down perspective of the sycamore maple and the snowshoe hiker, won a silver medal in the renowned Bergwelten photo competition.

In the fall of 2024, my brother and I climbed Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain and volcano, which is also considered a sacred place. We did it outside of the official season and were almost the only people on our south-facing ascent via the Fujinomiya route. At the summit is Japan's highest Shinto shrine, dedicated to the goddess Konohanasakuya-hime. Wooden Shinto gates, like this one at over 3,000 meters, break up the monotonous, volcanic landscape on the solitary mountain. For spiritual people, the climb is a pilgrimage to a place they say is a journey from life to death, to the realm of the gods, and back again.

Kyrgyzstan is one of the highest countries in the world. Over eight thousand glaciers cover almost 30 percent of the country's surface. Most of the peaks in the Tien Shan Mountains are nameless, and many remain unclimbed. The also nameless glacier in this photo lies at an elevation of over 3,500 meters and reaches almost to the over 4,200-meter summit of the also nameless mountain, which we climbed with our adult children and a guide in the summer of 2019 during a multi-day tent trek.

On a September morning in 2024, Mount Athos, over 2,000 meters high, had a powerful aura about it, even from a distance. Strangely, the clouds reflected the mountain's contours.
It is a monastic republic, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the only place in the EU where access to women is strictly prohibited.

Compared to many other American city centers, downtown San Jose is compact and not quite as skyscraper-like. Nevertheless, it took me a moment to understand that the reflection of the building is by no means a glass-distorted view of the lower part of the skyscraper behind it.

Fresh snow from the night on the ice and rocky islands of Lake Hintersee in the Berchtesgaden Alps National Park. This photo is part of a commissioned work I took at 24 locations in the Alps in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.

I also grew up in Tokyo, but mostly in Munich. This is where I graduated from high school, did my community service, and studied photography. My children were born here, and from here I not only travel to my photography assignments at home and abroad, but also regularly travel to the nearby Bavarian mountains and often even deeper into the Alps.

Standing on touring skis in difficult-to-ride broken crust beneath a hanging glacier at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters is a rare experience. You shouldn't stay there too long to avoid being hit by breaking ice.

On a month-long expedition to the Tsum Valley in Nepal, the Valley of Happiness, my good friend and author Titus Arnu and I spent weeks sleeping in tents. We had to wait a long time each morning for the sun to warm the valley floor, which was very cold in November, and us. In the hamlet of Rainjam, overlooking a peak over 7,000 meters high in the Ganesh Himal range, a flock of pigeons circled as we packed up camp to move further into the Buddhist valley, whose inhabitants have taken an oath not to kill or eat animals.

When I wake up in my second hometown Tokyo, sometimes in a hotel room high above the city, jet lagged on the first day after my arrival from Munich, I always take a photo out the window.  Which makes me feel closer to the familiar but ever-changing dimensions of this metropolis, where I spent many  years of my childhood.

The Hochstubai Hut in the Ötztal Alps lies at just over 3,000 meters above sea level. Watching day turn into evening up there in summer is a rare treat.

Stray dogs are a common sight in some countries. In rural areas or the mountains, their territories are more extensive. This one also seems to have adapted its color to his territory, a valley in the Atacama Desert.

The Tokyo Tower, located in the Roppongi district, is a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and even 33 meters taller than the original. For many decades, it was one of the landmarks of the Japanese capital. Now, the Skytree, one of the tallest buildings in the world, towers almost twice as high at 634 meters and, since its completion, dominates the ever-growing urban sea in the Kanto Plain, one of the most densely populated regions in the world.

During a nighttime hike in the Ammergau Alps, I happened to photograph the annual solstice bonfire in the mountains. This originally pagan custom became known in Christian culture as the St. John's Fire, held on St. John's Day.

The second drone photo of the exhibition. Also a top-down photo of Lake Hintersee, which isn't completely frozen over. While my drone was taking the photo, it started to snow.

Several layers make up this drone photo: the blue-green waters of Lake Hintersee, the icy shores covered in fresh snow from the night before, low-lying clouds, and the beginnings of snowfall.