The Far North

Artists

• Larry Cwik

Statement

The Arctic is critical to our planet, especially the Northern Hemisphere.  Yet it is little-known and little-visited.  It is remote and difficult to travel to.  It is harsh and fragile yet also diverse, biologically rich, and beautiful.  Relatively few people live there.  Yet its influence on our planet is large.

The project The Far North results from nine trips to the Arctic to photograph since 2002.  Images for the project are from the five Arctic coastal nations, the U.S., Russia, Norway, Greenland, and Canada.

The background context for this project is increased geopolitical tussling over Arctic resources such as fishing, oil, and natural gas, new and potentially lucrative trade routes, global climate change that is occurring twice as quickly in the Arctic as the rest of the planet, changing ice and permafrost conditions, and increased militarization of the Arctic.  Arctic seas have competing boundaries yet no treaty regulates the competing claims.  Arctic peoples facing changes to their traditional, centuries-old lifestyles due to these factors may well serve as a canary in a coal mine to warn residents in more southerly climates of changes to come.