The last romantic of the Arctic: why Vyacheslav Korotkiy chose silence over the metropolis (9 photos)
In a world where everyone strives to be seen, Vyacheslav Korotkiy, a polar explorer and meteorologist, chose a path that many have hastened to dub the most total loneliness on the planet. For decades, he preferred the nearly abandoned Khodovarikha station on the edge of the Barents Sea to cozy city apartments, where his only companions were the Arctic winds and meteorological instruments. The irony is that, with a family in Arkhangelsk, he chose the endless tundra as his true home, which certainly doesn't fit the logic of a "successful person" living by the rules of the metropolis.
Photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva, who traveled north on assignment for The New Yorker, expected to find a story about escaping personal tragedy, but she encountered something far more disconcerting. Instead of a tormented hermit, she discovered a man genuinely happy in his isolation, feeling part of the elements rather than an exile from civilization. It seems the title of "loneliest man" is merely a projection of our own fears of silence, because for Vyacheslav, the tundra became not a place of exile, but an ideal space for harmony with the weather. Ultimately, this photo project is not about melancholy, but about the rare ability to find one's place where the familiar world ends for everyone else, and frankly, this holds much more meaning than the endless bustle of the city. 
Download
Archive size 2.99 Mb, downloaded 0 times