Arctics as Visual Rhetoric of Transformation, Loss, and Absence

The project’s theme is the documentation of transformation, loss, and absence through archival photography of the Arctic. In collaboration with CNEAS at Tohoku University, the objective is to explore the potential of archival photography to embody ecological awareness – to acquire a kind of eco-eye. The methodology is based on polar ethnography and its emphasis on local cosmology. It is characterized by the shared millennia-old history of sensory communication among animals, plants, humans, and the inanimate tundra. By observing these interactions as once captured by their authors in photographs, will enable a better understanding of how the environment is changing and what we have (irreversibly) lost.

Supported by public funds from the Art Support Fund.