Audiographs
Meet the North: Life in the Arctic, one introduction at a time
An Exhibit of Photography and Sound
Statement
Our work confronts preconceptions about faraway places by sharing personal stories from real people. This series of portraits and sound from six different Arctic nations takes our audience on a journey into the unexpected.
The Arctic is known to many of us for ice, climate change, wilderness, and polar bears, but those stories overlook the north as home to over four million people. Our work sees the individuals within that population; each person is seen and heard.
The foundations of our work are listening and intuition. We traveled Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Nunavut, Alaska, and Russia for three years finding stories that people wanted to tell. While the result is distinctly northern, it also transcends geography by encouraging visitors to confront stereotypes and challenge notions of otherness.
Description
Audiographs are still images paired with short audio documentaries. In this exhibit, as visitors walk into a “crowd” of Arctic citizens, they encounter each person in two ways: a photographic portrait and an original audio story.
The photographs, printed at 30 by 40 inches, will be mounted on foam core and hung without glass. This format brings the subject and the viewer closer together. All 12 to 18 portraits will be accompanied by an overhead directional speaker or “sound cone” that plays a multi-track story. These mini-documentaries are styled to acknowledge our presence as storytellers. As visitors and creators, we are also part of this narrative.
See and hear examples at www.meetthenorth.org/listen
Artists
Eric Guth is a Portland based photographer with extensive experience in remote and polar regions. His portraiture combines landscapes and culture. He has been published widely including National Geographic, the BBC, the CBC (Canada), and NHK (Japan).
Jennifer Kingsley is a journalist and storyteller who specializes in modern culture around the world. She’s an award-winner author and radio broadcaster, as well as a National Geographic Explorer and the founder of Meet the North.
In the last 40 years, Dick Miller has produced hundreds of documentaries and radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and beyond. He lives in Nova Scotia, Canada and uses audio to create images in the listener’s mind.
This work has been supported by the National Geographic Society, the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Alliance, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Follow this link to experience a few of these photographs along with their soundtracks.
Sorine Peterson, drum dancer and animal welfare activist, in Aasiaat, Greenland
Nick Hanson, the “Eskimo Ninja” of Unalakleet, Alaska
Maya Pelyatagina field dresses a reindeer in Chukotka, Russia