French photographer Damien Aubin turns his attention to Pyramiden, a former Soviet mining settlement on the Svalbard archipelago that has remained remarkably intact in the Arctic cold. Mining activity ended in 1998, and the site later gained a small new population in 2007, but its atmosphere still feels paused between eras.
In Aubin's quiet visual study, classrooms, canteens, and communal spaces still hold traces of daily life. Open books remain on desks, a Lenin statue stands in place, and vivid red-and-blue details cut through the snow-covered landscape. The result is a portrait of a place shaped by human ambition yet now defined by stillness and preservation.
Aubin describes these locations as spaces "in suspension," and that idea runs through his work in Pyramiden, Barentsburg, and Longyearbyen. Rather than chasing dramatic action, he focuses on distance, soft light, and the dialogue between architecture and environment. His images are collected in a limited-edition book set for release in September, extending the project beyond the Arctic into the hands of readers and collectors.
As climate, memory, and place continue to shape contemporary visual culture, projects like this may inspire new ways of seeing how history lingers in the landscape and how photography can preserve it for the future.
