2011: James Balog

After 1 years, we catch up with our past Photography Person of the Year award-winner, James Balog, to see how his career has progressed.

In the short year since we spoke with nature photographer James Balog, he's perhaps seen more press events than he has forests and glaciers. His feature-length documentary "Chasing Ice," about his five-year-old Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) project documenting the retreat of the world's glaciers, was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival this January. The 75-minute film won the Excellence in Cinematography Award for documentaries.

Since then, Balog has become a veteran of the film festival circuit, where "Chasing Ice" has continued collecting accolades. It has been screened at the Big Sky Film Festival in Montana, the Boulder International Film Festival in Colorado, the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival, among others. By the end of this year the film, directed by Jeff Orlowski, will have its theatrical release, as well as its first worldwide broadcast on the National Geographic Channel.

Beyond the Hollywood glamour, book publisher Rizzoli will launch the world premiere of Balog's new 300-page coffee-table book on the EIS project, called "Ice: Portraits of Vanishing Glaciers."