If I could go anywhere in the world, I would want to travel north. Maybe it’s from reading The Golden Compass one two many times as a kid, but I’ve always been fascinated with the coldest parts of the globe. The romantic poets got this. There’s something terrifically lonesome, beautiful, and downright sublime about all that snow and wilderness and wildness.
Since I can’t go feral anytime soon (though my desire to live in a Tumbleweed hasn’t been completely squashed by recent developments), I’ve been attempting to sublimate my wanderlust into looking at pretty, pretty pictures. I’ve collected a few photographers who capture the cold parts of the world really well, and I figured I would round them up in one place….
First up is Troy Moth, who grew up in Canada and takes these fantastic black-and-white images of the wolves and hawks and treetops that populate North America. They’re all very masculine and fierce and remind me of scenes from Dead Man.
Also cool? Lottie Davies, who did an excellent series (found under “North” on her website) on the communities in Greenland. The pictures waver between depicting desolation and the more human side of the continent. I like them a lot (especially the polar bear crossing sign!)
And I saved my favorite for last: Celine Clanet‘s series on Lapland. Looking at these pictures makes me feel like I’m in a movie. I used to think that the place I most wanted to go was Alaska, but now I think Lapland might be even more interesting—and far more foreign.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve been doing today. Looking at pictures of even colder places (since Massachusetts in November isn’t cold enough, apparently).
Katy Kelleher 