ROAD OF BONES

Title: Road of bones

Created: 22 December 2013

Country: Russia

Size: 50X75

Paper: Fuji Crystal II

Mounting: Mounting and frame not included

Technique: Analog C-Print

Edition: 9 + 1 AP - 50X75

In December 2013, I traveled with Ivar Andersen to the coldest city in the world — Yakutsk — and further on toward the village of Oymyakon. For me, who at that time more often worked in conflict zones, it was a strangely exotic experience. The assignment was to depict the coldest place on Earth: an environment where frozen fish is sold directly at the market and where life is, in essence, a constant struggle against the permafrost.

Yakutsk greeted us with a “mild” minus forty degrees Celsius. A few hours outdoors was more than the body could endure, so we retreated into a restaurant with high expectations of discovering the local cuisine. But instead of something steaming hot, a plate of frozen meat was placed in front of us — raw, deep-frozen horse meat. We had longed for warmth, but were instead served what is perhaps the most characteristic dish of the region.

Toward the end of the journey, we also wanted to experience Oymyakon — the village where the lowest temperature ever recorded outside Antarctica was measured: –71.2°C. Our fixer assured us that the journey between Yakutsk and Oymyakon would take around twelve hours. In reality, it took twenty-six, and we came close to not making it back at all.

The road there is a story in itself: the Road of Bones — a route built by Gulag prisoners during the 1930s to 1950s. Thousands of people died during its construction, and their bodies are said to be embedded in the road itself, as the ground was too frozen to dig graves. The road is therefore not just a means of transport, but also a monument to forced labor, suffering, and death.

At the same time, the journey along it was almost supernaturally beautiful. The light of dawn over the frost-covered landscape remains one of my strongest memories from that place