Maggie Beck

Looking out across the Swiss Alps took my breath away; the mountains stretched in every direction and looked never-ending. Over spring break, with support from the Wentworth Travel Fellowship, I traveled to Bern, Zermatt and Château-d’Oex to research pioneer aerial photographer and balloonist Eduard Spelterini. His images transformed how people saw the environment, and I hoped to do the same as I explored Switzerland with two cameras and five rolls of film. 

One of the most meaningful moments of the trip was examining Spelterini’s glass plate negatives and prints at the Swiss National Library. Seeing the negatives beside the finished images revealed his artistic process and reminded me how intentional early photographers had to be with every frame. It amazed me, and I kept his style in mind as I developed my own film afterward.

The first time I truly understood the scale of Spelterini’s work was at the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise. The Matterhorn, towering nearly 4500 meters above, was the focus of many of his hot air balloon rides. After a 40-minute gondola ride, a small hike and a lot of stairs, I made it to the lookout. 

That view made me excited for my own hot-air balloon ride to photograph the landscape digitally and with black and white film. I noticed a faint brown haze over the mountains and learned that dust storms from the Sahara Desert carry particles across the Mediterranean and into Europe, a phenomenon that has affected visibility of the Alps. Seeing this firsthand made the project feel more urgent. Comparing my photographs to Spelterini’s images taken more than a century ago is something I plan to research further. 

To me, photography is a universal language that shapes how we see the world. Visiting these landscapes allowed me to see the changes in the environment from Spelterini’s pictures to my own images. I am reminded that a photo can do more than document a landscape; it can inspire people to care for their environment, and I am proud of myself for contributing to that narrative.

Maggie Beck is a UNCW sophomore and University Relations photographer majoring in studio art with a journalism minor, capturing campus life with a dream of one day shooting for National Geographic.