Evgenia Arbugaeva

Canon Ambassador Evgenia Arbugaeva's documentary photography explores some of the world's most isolated locations and the lives of their inhabitants. She works mainly in the sub-zero temperatures of the Russian Arctic, and her atmospheric images imbue her subjects with an almost otherworldly quality.

A recipient of the International Center of Photography's Infinity Award and a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow since 2018, Evgenia's work has been featured in publications including National Geographic, Time and The New Yorker. She travels internationally for her work, but is based in London.

Evgenia went on to study Documentary Photography and Photojournalism at the International Center of Photography in New York. A year after graduating in 2009, she began work on her first major project, focusing on Tiksi. "I tried to create photographs that reminded me of my own happy experiences there as a child," she says.

She worked on the story over a two-year period, travelling between what she calls the "parallel universes" of Tiksi and New York. It resulted in her first book.

Since then, Evgenia has regularly returned to Russia's Far North and photographed several other remote locations, often focusing on stories of resilient people living in isolation. They have included a couple who live in Kanin Nos research station and lighthouse, and Slava Korotkiy, the 'Weather Man', who lives in solitude at a meteorological station on a narrow peninsula in the Barents Sea.

She has also worked in other countries, notably Tanzania in East Africa, where she documented an abandoned research station founded in the late 19th century as a German botanical garden and coffee plantation, and used by the British in the post-war period as a malaria research institute. However, it's the Arctic that continues to inspire her the most.

"I feel my work in the Arctic will never finish because there are so many moments I still want to capture," she says. "The light is so special there, very different from anywhere else. Even though I've been travelling a lot in the region, it still feels new every time. There is so much more to discover.

"I hope that each of my stories builds into something bigger. It's interesting for me to see how the work evolves and how I'm adding one brick after another. Hopefully this will ultimately become a large body of work about the Arctic and the rapid climate, economic and cultural changes this fragile region is going through."

How do very cold temperatures affect your photography?

"When working in these environments I often keep my cameras under layers of clothing. Each shot has to be perfect to be worth all the struggle, so in a way it forces me to be more disciplined. Also, batteries last a very short time, so I carry lots of them in my mittens or inner pockets to keep them warm."



What's the coldest temperature you've worked in?

"I once worked in -65°C, which was physically painful. Once, when looking through the viewfinder, my cheek got frozen to the camera so I had to walk slowly to the house, go inside and wait until the ice melted enough to detach it."



How did you meet Slava, the 'Weather Man'?

"I was curious to see how people live in extreme isolation in the Russian Arctic and was also interested in meteorological stations. The only way to see these places was to board an icebreaker ship that delivers supplies once a year. I visited 22 stations and met Slava at the Khodovarikha station. I instantly knew this was the place I was looking for – it felt as if time had stopped there. As a character I found Slava very interesting. He is almost a mix of the main character in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and a Soviet Arctic explorer of the romantic times of polar exploration."



What attracts you to remote places?

"I think it all comes from childhood. I remember the darkness of polar night, the strong winds and the bright light of the aurora – that left a lasting impression on me as a child. I have travelled around the world and visited many places, but I have never found anything similar to that sense of space, that landscape that stretches forever."

Evgenia Arbugaeva

"My advice for aspiring documentary photographers is to really think about what interests you and what you're passionate about – the topics that perhaps are close to home and to who you are. In strong work, you can always see an interesting story, but there's also a very pronounced layer of personal experience. You can sense how much the photographer was emotionally involved in a story. I think you can only achieve that if you work on something that touches you a lot."

Instagram: @evgenia_arbugaeva

Website: www.evgeniaarbugaeva.com