New East Digital Archive

Raging nature: wild days, hot nights in the Arctic Circle

12 January 2015

A photographer and the creative brains behind denim brand THVM, LA-based Olga Nazarova just can’t get enough of her homeland. For her photo story Raging Nature, Nazarova returned to her native Karelia within the Arctic Circle in northern Russia, the site of a previous photo diary she shot for The Calvert Journal last year. This time, she took two friends in tow. The results are grainy black and white and colour images contrasting the limber beauty of the female body against the rawness of the Arctic region. “I have used different types of films to showcase the diversity of feelings you acquire in Karelia,” says Nazarova. “We spent several hours fishing in the White Sea, submerged in the solitude of nature and our own thoughts. Reaching the Arctic Circle feels like a moment of spiritual awareness, almost as if a sleeper has awakened within you.”