Read a photographers view on the uncertainty of the landscape.
Transcription from interview with Ellis [10-10-2016], unedited:
“Nature is powerful and confronting, and in this kind of place this is so much more obvious. I am really interested in traces of human beings, like these little trapper huts you see in the landscape. It also helps with seeing the scale of it. There are so many structures here that are abandoned and have been here for a long time that it makes you wonder what the story behind it all is. I am making pictures of the Arctic that are degraded and warped and messed up and I will make work about the uncertainty of this landscape and climate change. But it will also be about the medium photography that is changing, with smartphones and digital media and how photography can reinvent itself as an art form.
With global warming it seems that the Arctic is affected before other things and the effects of climate change are more pronounced here. Glaciers retreating, there is less snow and animals are dying. You don’t really know how long how it will look like this.
Being in this landscape feels stunning and horrifying, and I feel all the things one feels when traveling. I completely love it, am blown away and it’s amazing. And I also can’t wait to get back to my home and shower and sleep in a nice bed. You spend so much time dreaming about coming here and then you’re just like: I am uncomfortable. But it’s great. You’re always in survival mode here.”