Hyperborea: Stories from the Arctic

by Evgenia Arbugaeva, Evgenia Arbugaeva

A career-to-date retrospective of a unique creative talent. A journey to the most inaccessible Arctic regions of Siberia, showing dreamlike encounters with its people, landscapes, and fauna. Hyperborea presents unforgettable visual tales of life in the Siberian Arctic that Evgenia Arbugaeva knew when she was growing up in Tiksi, a town on the shore of the Laptev Sea in the Republic of Yakutia. Her work discloses both the fragility and beautiful desolation of the land and those who inhabit it, and her rigorously composed photographs glow with rich otherworldly color, bristle with the raw vibrancy of the climate, and exhibit the quiet intensity of lives borne out in seclusion and extremes. This beautifully produced photobook contains a decade of work, with photographs selected from across the full range of Arbugaeva’s series and extensive travels across the Russian Arctic coast to connect with people living in these remote and inhospitable places. The photographs that she brings back from her long-term visits convey a world where everything seems humans and nature, the sky and the land. An elemental space of deep solitude and slower pace of life. Her images invite us to contemplate a territory that has been a place of longing and imagination for many, which is now under existential threat from a multitude of environmental changes. With an introduction by anthropologist Piers Vitebsky, four texts by Arbugaeva to supplement the images, and a specially commissioned map to provide a sense of where Arbugaeva’s work is located, Hyperborea is a future collectible for all photobook fans and introduces a global audience to a very special talent in the world of photography. 45 color illustrations

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

112 pages, Hardcover

Published October 31, 2023

Reviews

[Justin Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jaw-droppingly beautiful photographs with fascinating historical background information to help contextualize them. I actually had to do an internet search to check to make sure I wasn't looking at paintings, some of the images are just so surreal.

[Haley N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Photographs that are unearthly and cinematic. Incredible use of color to convey story.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hyperborea: Stories from the Arctic is an unusual book of photographs from northeast Siberia, a place I rarely see pictured anywhere. The author and photographer is from there and has won awards for her photography and filmmaking. I found this book very original, but also depicting a place that seems to be dark and cold, which it may be. If I had any curiosity about that part of the world, this book satisfied it, so I'm not planning to go there. But I recommend the book for its unique images from a largely unknown part of the Earth.

[Mayelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting photographic journey of this corner of the Arctic and handful of its residents. The narrative is interesting and informative; and its images are stunning and somewhat surreal. It gives you the feels when you see those images - as if they were an entire different dimension. It's an exploration of lands and time that are vanishing, and I'm so very glad to have come across this author's work.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, haunting, hopeful, eerie. I like that the pictures are first presented by themselves and then there's an explanation at the end - it allows you to sit with each photo and really soak it in.

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly beautiful. I read every word twice and loved the photos even more. Just loved it.

[Bumbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. The photographer has a very unique and distinct style. Really worth checking out from ur local library.