A Hidden World: Night Photography in Greenland
“Untitled (#8709)”, one of Giovinco’s images in the exhibition. (courtesy of Steve Giovinco)
Inspired by the Hudson River School painters and Scandinavian film, New York-based photographer Steve Giovinco captures environmental change through long-exposure night-time images. His latest series, inertia, exploring southern Greenland, capturing locations around the remote town of Narsarswak. Captured over minutes and hours of exposure, the images show glowing icebergs floating on water surrounded by mountain silhouettes and ancient Norse ruins.In creating this series, Giovinco built on decades of experience: he holds an MFA from Yale University and a displayed His work is included in public and private collections in New York, Miami, Chicago, Washington, DC, and more.
inertia Currently on display at the Scandinavian House in New York, the American Nordic Cultural Center, titled on the edge of the arctic. The exhibition also includes work by photographer and interdisciplinary artist Clare Benson and photographer Marion Belanger. All three artists are currently Fellows of the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
during an interview glacier centerGiovinco discusses how inertia and on the edge of the arctic Came into being.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Gallery of Scandinavian House in New York City. (courtesy of Erin Travelell)
What drew you to long exposure night photography?
Nighttime photography reveals a hidden world. More specifically, I was drawn to uninhabited places, especially Greenland, which showed signs of change, and eerie but beautiful otherworldly landscapes emerging from the darkness.
Also, despite having a very tactile, documentary-like approach, it’s also a bit conceptual and abstract because I’m capturing spans of time and light—something we humans can’t see. Ironically, these are “invisible” images, captured by man-made mechanical devices.
Two other images of Giovinco appear on the show. (courtesy of Steve Giovinco)
Can you describe your process for creating nighttime images? Have you encountered any technical difficulties when shooting or post-processing images in remote locations in the dark?
Most were shot at night with digital cameras mounted on tripods, often requiring long exposures ranging from one to two hours. This produces strange and eerie light that looks otherworldly. I’m very interested in the intersection of beauty, lighting, and tracing epic, ever-changing landscapes. And capture the hidden world and the hidden changing climate at night.
I usually make about three thousand images, which I then compile into portfolios of about 15 or 20; about half are shown here. Due to the long exposure, I did a lot of retouching in Photoshop for two reasons. First, due to the technical aspects of working at night, I may need to do dozens of color corrections, including retouching, sharpening, masking, and denoising. Second, I use Photoshop as a way to reference the conceptual nature of the images. Here I can emphasize certain elements – rocks, rivers, ice, etc – that are normally invisible to a person standing there, but captured by the camera. Therefore, one photo may require 20 to 40 hours of work.
Your part on the show is described as featuring images of “Narsarsuaq, a remote town in the shadow of a glacier”. How did the presence of glaciers and ice influence your creation of these images?
I was fascinated by uninhabited places like Greenland and Narsarswak because they revealed evidence of change through icebergs flowing through fjords. I think it’s a unique place because it’s both a literal representation of melting glaciers and an amazing metaphor for change. Perhaps, by extension, reference is made to other variations, such as various inertias – natural and man-made.
“Untitled (#7015)” (courtesy of Steve Giovinco)
You emphasize darkness by having images that are usually dark, but sometimes include areas of light, some of which are specific to the Arctic (like the northern lights and icebergs) and some of which are universal (like the moon). How do you discover these sources of light and then bring them into your photographs?
My working process is very intuitive. In extreme darkness, I’m often unable to see what’s in the camera’s viewfinder, instead standing next to the camera to “feel” the image and compose it at night. I didn’t find out what I was photographing until later. When I get back to New York, it may be minutes or even weeks later. This process of revelation is a key element of the work.
Your imagery on the show depicts an isolated and mysterious North Pole that seems dreamy and magical. But we know that no place on Earth is immune to climate change. How, if anything, has the tension between the remoteness of the region and the pervasiveness of man-made climate change influenced the way you create these images?
I’m drawn to places like Greenland and the Arctic because they’re both real representations and metaphors for a changing world. Since I couldn’t take a five-year-long photo of the North Pole, which would be fun, I looked at these hour-long photos as a way to reference and conceptualize the idea of change.
I often think of the remoteness of Greenland and compare it to places I can understand — ironically, one of the most populous places: New York. Greenland has 56,000 people spread out over a 2,000-mile radius, the same number of people who live in a dozen city blocks in New York. There are no roads connecting Greenland’s towns; just boats and air travel. A similar trip would be half an hour by car or train from Manhattan to Jersey City or the Bronx, but the same trip might take three hours by boat in Greenland. Or imagine going to New Haven, Princeton, or Long Island—it would take about an hour or an hour and a half; there would be a $500 helicopter ride.
inertiaExhibited in on the edge of the arctic. (courtesy of Erin Travelell)
What do you hope viewers get from this exhibition?
Since climate statistics are often so hard to really understand, I hope these beautiful photos of real-world changes in these remote areas of icebergs and glaciers will bring awareness to people beyond art galleries. I find it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to track epic change, and I feel it is imperative to continue before it changes further. Hopefully this work will prompt people to start thinking in this way. For example, the subway here in New York was shut down during Hurricane Sandy. What if Greenland’s ice continues to melt rapidly? How will this affect the East River, the East Coast and the rest of the world? I hope that making these images of change and beautiful surroundings will give people pause.
on the edge of the arctic On display at Scandinavia House on March 4th.
