As a cold snap bites the UK and the first snowflakes fall in 2024, we’re looking to the ephemeral land art of former London engineer Simon Beck. Based partly in the French Alps, Beck makes vast stretches of untouched snow his canvas, creating giant geometric patterns in the powder with nothing but his footsteps and some simple maths.

The professional cartographer creates maps to plan his designs, with one millimetre representing one step on the ground. Then he dons his snowshoes and takes to the outdoors, carefully plodding for up to 12 hours a day. One of his largest works – a four-leaf clover on a frozen reservoir in France – was the size of six soccer fields and took him 32 hours across four days to complete. All it takes to wipe his work away is a short snow shower, heavy gale or a rogue skier but that’s all part of its beauty. Each piece is a delicate balance between the geometric and the organic.