"And then you just can't feel my legs": the polar night through the eyes of a Briton
Spent an entire year of British photographer Simon Roberts (Simon Roberts), exploring the vast Russian expanses. It was almost 14 years ago, and the result was a sensational project "Rodina" (Motherland). In it the author alternated travel pictures and statements of political and cultural figures, thus attempting to construct the image of Russia.
Since then Simon has continued to build its own visual language, which is based on the contradiction between the small objects and comprehensive nature. Another surprising, but less known project is a series of "Polar Nights" (Polyarnye Nochi). All photos of the series was filmed on the Kola Peninsula in the period from December to January, when the region is literally immersed in darkness 24 hours a day. Due to the fact that the sun hardly appears over the horizon, you experience the amazing beauty of light effects, directly refers us to the project name.
Unique winter landscape deserves to be called the main hero of the project, while people are only supporting characters in the natural scale.
During the period of utter darkness in the North of Russia forced to survive. Extreme weather conditions made the process of shooting the most difficult. Because of this, Simon refused to expensive equipment, preferring it to the medium format film camera. The film the photographer was strengthened with paper to avoid damaging the fragile material at a cold temperature.
Inspiration for the project Simon was found in Russian culture. Most of all he enjoyed of our Directors — Tarkovsky, Zvyagintsev and Khlebnikov, and the writer Nikolai Gogol, whose Dead souls defeated the British.
Keywords: Britain | Foreigners | Kola Peninsula | Polar night | Photography