Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with contemporary photographic representations of a changing Arctic. It discusses an archive-based photo project about glaciers on Svalbard by the Swedish photo historian and photographer Tyrone Martinsson.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores an ongoing photo project by the Swedish photo historian and photographer Tyrone Martinsson (b. 1967) about Svalbard’s glaciers.

As part of his research on early Arctic photography and polar expeditions, Martinsson collects historical prints and photos of glaciers on Svalbard from archives. Together with a glaciologist, he identifies the exact vantage points of the images in order to take a new photo according to the composition of the original. Martinsson then arranges the historical representations and his rephotographs of each glacier in horizontal timelines.

This juxtaposition reveals long-term patterns of change in the Arctic landscape. Martinsson’s timelines undermine the traditional notion of the polar region as an area of perpetual ice, as glacial retreat becomes visible. Furthermore, it shows how our views of the North have changed over the centuries.

It should be noted that while the location of the historical image can be determined, the exact time it was taken cannot. Therefore, seasonal variations or natural dynamics, such as surging glaciers, may affect the visual impression. However, since glacial retreat only becomes noticeable for the human eye after several decades, Martinsson’s media collage with long gaps between the images offers a suitable way to visualize these slow dynamics.