MY VISIT IN FEBRUARY 2023

Svalbard was my first stop in this project and my first artist-in-residence. I stepped off the plane to -20°C and knew that I was in for an adventure. I arrived at the end of the Arctic Winter, meaning there were only around 4 hours of daylight, and I also had almost 5 hours of sunrise/sunset to photograph. Perfect photography conditions. 

My initial goal was to meet with some scientists and document their work. This proved problematic as most expeditions were done through UNIS and having me along would be a liability to the University. After this realization, I continued photographing the surrounding landscape and planned two major day trips. The first was to the East Coast which entailed 13 hours of snowmobile riding with select stops. Temps were between -30° to -40°C. I captured a few shots, and in the process almost lost my camera case. Luckily a tour trailing us recovered it and I was able to continue. 

The next expedition was photographing the fjords on the way to Barentsburg. The day before another American died on this route, so we took it slow. Shortly after passing the site of the fatality a snowstorm came in, and we decided to turn back.
After this trip, I headed to Greenland for a few weeks, which you can view in the stills section. When I boarded the plane to leave Svalbard, daylight had increased to nearly 12 hours, in 5 weeks!