As a portrait of a fishing village struggling to survive the effects of climate change, the series, ‘Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik’ gave photographer, Michal Siarek, a sense of belonging he had never experienced before.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAL SIAREK TEXT BY BEGÜM EROL
The impact of climate change and deteriorating natural conditions is felt hardest in small, isolated communities, settlements that make their living directly from nature. Gamvik, a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast of the Barents Sea, in the region of Finnmark — the northernmost settlement of Norway — is no exception. In recent years, the effects of climate change have left the village folk facing unfamiliar challenges. As a result, schools are in danger of closing, locals are leaving and the remaining residents, now numbering just over 100, are trying to hold on to their traditions and the life they enjoy, despite the bleak outlook. The people of Gamvik pose the challenging question of ‘How to react when faced with the possibility of extinction?’ from a different perspective.
Michal Siarek is profoundly inquisitive, and it was questions like these that led the photographer to Gamvik. While travelling across the Norwegian peninsula in 2020, a friend who ran a local shop introduced him to an activist, who had made Gamvik his home after falling in love with a woman. This gave birth to the series, Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik, which seeks deeper answers to the questions asked by its inhabitants.
According to Siarek, remote, forgotten places like Gamvik are walking a tightrope, risking the loss of their livelihood as the global economy makes their traditional way of life irrelevant. They are unable to compete with industrial fishing or aquaculture and struggle with population decline, but Siarek was very impressed with how the people of Gamvik turned to community-based economics, prioritising well-being, sustainable fishing and nature conservation for the future. This experience encouraged Siarek to collaborate with photographer and journalist, Birger Amundsen, to prepare a story for the first issue of Gamvik’s local newspaper. By asking long-term residents and newcomers to Gamvik what they love, what they have, what they miss and what they are afraid of, they aimed to kindle a deep discussion about the anticipated future of local communities: Meaningful conversations in Norweigan, Russian and English connected them with one another. This was the first small step towards bringing nature and humans closer together. What guides Siarek in his project is redolent of historian Charles Joyner’s description of microhistory, focusing on isolated groups, threatened by great powers or changes: ‘asking large questions in small places’.
As a portrait of a fishing village struggling to survive the effects of climate change, the series, ‘Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik’ gave photographer, Michal Siarek, a sense of belonging he had never experienced before.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAL SIAREK TEXT BY BEGÜM EROL
The impact of climate change and deteriorating natural conditions is felt hardest in small, isolated communities, settlements that make their living directly from nature. Gamvik, a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast of the Barents Sea, in the region of Finnmark — the northernmost settlement of Norway — is no exception. In recent years, the effects of climate change have left the village folk facing unfamiliar challenges. As a result, schools are in danger of closing, locals are leaving and the remaining residents, now numbering just over 100, are trying to hold on to their traditions and the life they enjoy, despite the bleak outlook. The people of Gamvik pose the challenging question of ‘How to react when faced with the possibility of extinction?’ from a different perspective.
Michal Siarek is profoundly inquisitive, and it was questions like these that led the photographer to Gamvik. While travelling across the Norwegian peninsula in 2020, a friend who ran a local shop introduced him to an activist, who had made Gamvik his home after falling in love with a woman. This gave birth to the series, Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik, which seeks deeper answers to the questions asked by its inhabitants.
According to Siarek, remote, forgotten places like Gamvik are walking a tightrope, risking the loss of their livelihood as the global economy makes their traditional way of life irrelevant. They are unable to compete with industrial fishing or aquaculture and struggle with population decline, but Siarek was very impressed with how the people of Gamvik turned to community-based economics, prioritising well-being, sustainable fishing and nature conservation for the future. This experience encouraged Siarek to collaborate with photographer and journalist, Birger Amundsen, to prepare a story for the first issue of Gamvik’s local newspaper. By asking long-term residents and newcomers to Gamvik what they love, what they have, what they miss and what they are afraid of, they aimed to kindle a deep discussion about the anticipated future of local communities: Meaningful conversations in Norweigan, Russian and English connected them with one another. This was the first small step towards bringing nature and humans closer together. What guides Siarek in his project is redolent of historian Charles Joyner’s description of microhistory, focusing on isolated groups, threatened by great powers or changes: ‘asking large questions in small places’.
As a portrait of a fishing village struggling to survive the effects of climate change, the series, ‘Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik’ gave photographer, Michal Siarek, a sense of belonging he had never experienced before.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAL SIAREK TEXT BY BEGÜM EROL
The impact of climate change and deteriorating natural conditions is felt hardest in small, isolated communities, settlements that make their living directly from nature. Gamvik, a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast of the Barents Sea, in the region of Finnmark — the northernmost settlement of Norway — is no exception. In recent years, the effects of climate change have left the village folk facing unfamiliar challenges. As a result, schools are in danger of closing, locals are leaving and the remaining residents, now numbering just over 100, are trying to hold on to their traditions and the life they enjoy, despite the bleak outlook. The people of Gamvik pose the challenging question of ‘How to react when faced with the possibility of extinction?’ from a different perspective.
Michal Siarek is profoundly inquisitive, and it was questions like these that led the photographer to Gamvik. While travelling across the Norwegian peninsula in 2020, a friend who ran a local shop introduced him to an activist, who had made Gamvik his home after falling in love with a woman. This gave birth to the series, Not to brag, but I’m from Gamvik, which seeks deeper answers to the questions asked by its inhabitants.
According to Siarek, remote, forgotten places like Gamvik are walking a tightrope, risking the loss of their livelihood as the global economy makes their traditional way of life irrelevant. They are unable to compete with industrial fishing or aquaculture and struggle with population decline, but Siarek was very impressed with how the people of Gamvik turned to community-based economics, prioritising well-being, sustainable fishing and nature conservation for the future. This experience encouraged Siarek to collaborate with photographer and journalist, Birger Amundsen, to prepare a story for the first issue of Gamvik’s local newspaper. By asking long-term residents and newcomers to Gamvik what they love, what they have, what they miss and what they are afraid of, they aimed to kindle a deep discussion about the anticipated future of local communities: Meaningful conversations in Norweigan, Russian and English connected them with one another. This was the first small step towards bringing nature and humans closer together. What guides Siarek in his project is redolent of historian Charles Joyner’s description of microhistory, focusing on isolated groups, threatened by great powers or changes: ‘asking large questions in small places’.
CURA
18
OUT NOW
is a large format international biannual magazine from Istanbul. Focusing on arts, culture and society, each issue tackles various universal subjects within a distinct theme.
Address
Karaköy Tarihi Un Değirmeni Binası, Kemankeş Mahallesi, Ali Paşa Değirmen Sokak 16, 34425, Karaköy Istanbul, Turkey
+90 212 232 4288
contact@212magazine.com
CURA
18
OUT NOW
is a large format international biannual magazine from Istanbul. Focusing on arts, culture and society, each issue tackles various universal subjects within a distinct theme.
Address
Karaköy Tarihi Un Değirmeni Binası, Kemankeş Mahallesi, Ali Paşa Değirmen Sokak 16, 34425, Karaköy Istanbul, Turkey
+90 212 232 4288
contact@212magazine.com
CURA
18
OUT NOW
is a large format international biannual magazine from Istanbul. Focusing on arts, culture and society, each issue tackles various universal subjects within a distinct theme.
Address
Karaköy Tarihi Un Değirmeni Binası, Kemankeş Mahallesi, Ali Paşa Değirmen Sokak 16, 34425, Karaköy Istanbul, Turkey
+90 212 232 4288
contact@212magazine.com