The Long Night

My Scholarship entry - A 'place' I have visited

Norway | Friday, May 24, 2013 | 4 photos

I am Elle; adventurer, photographer and environmentalist. I have just graduated with a degree in Marine & Natural History Photography and I am ready for my next adventure.
The series you see here is from Svalbard, one of the destinations on my ‘list’ and it was just the most incredible place; indigo skies, diamond snow and a hardy Northern population. I am accustomed to the Arctic landscape and climate having travelled widely around Scandinavia, and Svalbard in the middle of winter. Using a camera in -30ºC was always going to be a challenge but with a but of initiative and warm hands I preserved and captured the darkness as I saw it in all its idiosyncratic seductive beauty. I shoot predominantly on transparency film, sometimes with a Mamiya RB67 or a Hasselblad 501CM. These photographs of Svalbard are digital but I would hope to shoot film in Greenland. I want to immerse myself photographically and truely into the Northern landscape.
I am concerned about the Arctic people with the influx of adventure tourists seeking their next thrill, I want to learn to document the impact of this industry on the landscape and within the social capacities of the Greenlandic people.