What do we do if a theory of landscape necessitates a theory of everything? Accumulating data breeds new specialties, but adds to the fragmentation — while one's relationship with the land is inherently personal. Landscape is something walked — a sense of intimacy mixed up with logistics. In the end, what we carry out is perhaps gratitude, and a sense of non-human.
This, Promised was shot in the Norwegian arctic over a period of complete seasonal change from the end of the polar day to the beginning of polar night. It focuses on places along the edges of structured land — roads, farms, national borders, the local fishing and mining industry, archeological sites and natural preserves — and covers the municipalities of Sør-Varanger, Vadsø, Vardø, Nesseby and Båtsfjord.
Gleb Simonov is a poet and photographer, born in Russia in 1986 and currently based in New York. He is a winner of Urbanautica Award for 2021, his work has been featured in “Observations in the Ordinary” collection by Subjectively Objective, and several photography magazines, such as Float, PHROOM, Phases, Analog magazine and others.