What’s going on in the Arctic Circle? Not a lot, one might think. A handful of lonely scientists huddled in windswept outposts, testing ice samples for goodness knows what and presumably wishing they’d chosen a different profession.

A few barely visible polar bears chasing seals around, sundry other animals fighting for survival in the bitter cold, and lots and lots of ice and snow. Not the sort of place you’d expect to find much mystery and intrigue, but then again, you haven’t looked at the Arctic through the eyes of Evgenia Arbugaeva.

The photographer grew up on the Arctic coast in the Russian town of Tiksi, giving her a different perspective on the region and instilling from a young age a deep fascination for it. Her two series, Weather Man and Tiksi, blend documentary and narrative genres, sprinkled with magical realism, to tell stories full of humanity against the harsh backdrop of an unforgiving landscape. The weather man in question is 63-year-old meteorologist Vyacheslav Korotki, who works alone in a remote station in Khodovarikha in Arctic Russia. Arbugaeva met the scientist by chance, and later returned to weave a tale around his solitary life.

Tiksi nostalgically recalls the artist’s childhood; having left the former military base with her family many years ago, a return visit in 2010 revealed a town in sharp decline, prompting Arbugaeva to photograph scenes imbued with the sense of wonder she experienced in her youth. The two series, together as Arctic Stories, are being shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, from 6 November this year to 16 January 2016.

@TPGallery

Evgenia Arbugaeva
From the series Weather Man, 2014 © Evgenia Arbugaeva
Courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery

Evgenia Arbugaeva
From the series Weather Man, 2014 © Evgenia Arbugaeva
Courtesy of The Photographers’ Gallery