Four Stories from the Russian Arctic

In these photographs, and frequently in Arbugaeva’s work, the scenes have a subdued underwater look, as if recovered from the deep past or icebound legend.The darkling aesthetic is already present in “Weather Man,” the earliest of the four stories (as Arbugaeva prefers to say) in the project, begun in 2013. Arbugaeva uses digital cameras robust enough for Arctic weather; nonetheless, in some respects, her photographs of Korotki—attending to his paper records, visiting an old lighthouse for firewood, making matchstick houses to pass the time—look as though they could have been made at any point in the past century.This atmosphere is not just a matter of style. Arbugaeva raced, sweating, between scenes she had already scouted: a piano clogged with snow, a button-eyed toy by a frosted window, sharp-edged green shadows advancing on the town.An exhibition of Arbugaeva’s work, which recently concluded at the Photographers’ Gallery in London, is called “Hyperborea”—an allusion to a tribe in Greek mythology that lived beyond the north wind. Wrapped in newspaper, to protect against the cold, they appear as treasures from a world left behind.By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement.In a new book, “People of the Mud,” the photographer Luis Alberto Rodriguez creates a choreography of bodies at work and at play.By Brian DillonMeadows, woodlands, wetlands, and glades, full of plants native to the region, surround a crescent-shaped pool of recycled rainwater—an outdoor space for which to give thanks.BTS and other stars have taken off in America.