Russian photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva was born in the port town of Tiksi, the northernmost port town of the Sakha Republic. When she was a child, her biology teacher, her father, often took her out to sea to fish. Sometimes, they would go to the polar station. Meteorologists tend to entertain them with rhododendron tea and berry tea, tell them about the Northern Lights, and display cloud atlases. Such a scene is forever engraved in the heart of Evgenia Arbugaeva.
Geography of Tiksi
(71° 38′ 13" N, 128° 52′ 05" E)
According to the 2016 census, there were only 4556 people in Tiksi. Such a remote, desolate town is so colorful under the lens of Evgenia Arbugaeva.
In 2013, Evgenia Arbugaeva was given an opportunity to deliver food to remote weather stations in the Arctic on an icebreaker. After two months of sailing, she landed on the Zavorote Peninsula in Russia, where she met the meteorologist Slava at the weather station.
Meteorologist Slava
Both of Slava's parents worked on ships, so he spent almost all of his childhood at sea. Growing up, Slava became a radio operator on board. Later he got married, and his wife said to him, "You either choose me or you choose the sea." He ended up choosing his wife. But he was so obsessed with the sea that after ten years, he finally couldn't stand it, so he fled to the weather station on this Arctic island. Slava said it was like a big ship, with the sea on all sides. He was so attracted to the one here that he couldn't live without the sea.
Evgenia Arbugaeva realized that she would have to come here again. So, in the winter, she took a helicopter to the weather station again. She brought oranges and champagne to celebrate the New Year at the weather station, and brought a gift to Slava, a small parrot in a cage. Slava was not surprised by Evgenia Arbugaeva's arrival, though he never knew she would come.
Evgenia Arbugaeva settled in a room where meteorologists had previously left and recorded Slavea's work with a camera.
Every three hours, Slava collects data on soil temperature, air temperature, wind speed, precipitation, barometric pressure, and determining the shape of the clouds. He wrote the collected data in a yellowed notebook and, through a dilapidated radio station, sent the information to a man he had never seen before, with a call sign of Badan-21, and his own call sign was Badan-15.
During the two weeks she spent here, Evgenia felt that melancholy was beginning to envelop her, so she decided to talk to Slava. Slava told her: "Melancholy, because you have a lot of expectations, so you suffer. If you're expecting nothing, then you're completely at peace. Then he shifted the subject, "I think every day here is a new day." Yesterday, we saw the Northern Lights across the sky, which is beautiful, right? And today the stars are shining, and last week the stars have been hiding behind the clouds. Today's sea is also covered with a thin layer of ice, and the ice crystals on the surface are dazzling, making the sea water dull. Here, every day there is something new. ”
For New Year's Eve, Evgenia decided to help Slava clean her room. At first he was uncomfortable with Evgenia busy inside the room, and as the room slowly became clean, he began to feel comfortable. Evgenia placed oranges, candles, and champagne brought from the city on the table. Hanging in the cage in front of the window, parrots chirped. When the bell tolled at 12 o'clock, they went outside and completed a festive fireworks display with their hand-held flares. Slava said he had been here for 13 years and had never had a New Year like this.
Slava sadly told Evgenia: "I'm going to retire and get out of here soon. In the summer, a new house was built on the island as a weather station with a computer and an automatic monitoring system. ”
Compilation: Wen Jin
Image: © Evgenia Arbugaeva