I’m pleased to have been invited to be an artist-in-residence at Artica Svalbard from mid October to mid November this year, 2025, in Longyearbyen, Norway. My primary mission in undertaking this second residency of 2025 is to produce the 2025 edition of my ongoing Winter Solstice Pinhole Photographs (WSPH) series, which I put on hiatus last year in order to focus on preparing for my residency at Cité international des arts in Paris. So not only will the WSPH series return this year, but it will be slightly modified to accommodate the timing and location of the residency.
Because the Svalbard archipelago is located far north of the Arctic Circle, the area will be well into Polar Night by the time of the Winter Solstice itself (which falls on December 21 this year). So, rather than the 2025 edition of WSPH acknowledging that particular planetary phenomenon as usual, this time I’ll document with a series of pinhole photographs the transition from sunlit (albeit from a very low angle) days to Polar Night (the period during which the disc of the sun will not be visible). The last day in 2025 during which direct sunlight will be possible will be October 26, about halfway through my residency period. I am calling this time Polar Dusk.
This image: https://www.britannica.com/place/Arctic-Circle
So, although this is a completely separate occurrence from the Winter Solstice, I think pinhole photographs executed on and around Polar Dusk maintains the spirit of the WSPH series and even examines its bigger ideas from a slightly different angle.
As I have done in years past, I will be documenting the behind-the-scenes process of traveling to and living for a time in this unusual, harsh location, and what it’s like to make pinhole photographs there. This time, thanks to the generosity of the Artica Svalbard residency program, I will be assembling a rudimentary darkroom on-site, most likely in on of the rooms normally reserved for printmaking. I’ve already ordered the darkroom chemistry from mainland Norway; much of the equipment I will bring myself in my luggage. Not to be underestimated with the WSPH series’s journeys is the logistical challenges of bringing photography gear, cold-weather clothing, and special pinhole accouterment to remote locations.
I hope to eventually synthesize the WSPH project into a book, and I am open to exhibitions and publications that present these images. However, I think it is necessary to be selective regarding how these images are presented—for the most part, they require some explanation to highlight their significance.
Stay tuned in to the Svalbard weeks on my instagram feed.