Jours de Nuit – Nuits de Jour

Biographie

Elena Chernyshova was born in 1981 in a country that no longer exists: the Soviet Union. Originally an architect (she was a member of the avant-garde practice « Art-Blya ») she settled in France in 2009 after having participated in the expedition « Toulouse-Vladivostok-Toulouse » by bike (1004 days, 30,000 km, 26 countries!) She then commenced a career as a photojournalist, which rapidly saw her awarded numerous prizes and international exhibitions. The project Jours de nuit. Nuits de jour was awarded the Lagardère Grant for Photography in 2012.

Présentation

We are at Norilsk, a mining town situated in Siberia, 400 km north of the Polar Circle. With its 170,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest town in the Far North. The town, its mines and its steelworks were constructed by prisoners of the Gulag. 60% of the population is involved in industry. Norilsk is the seventh most polluted town in the world. The average temperature is -10°, and can go as low as -55° in the height of winter. All these elements make life in Norilsk particularly unique. This project looks at the way humans adapt to the extreme climate, the ecological disaster and the isolation.