Vyacheslav Korotki goes out under the full moon to collect firewood from a lighthouse.
Beyond the models and forecasts, there is a part of the meteorology that hooks. That part surely we have all experienced it at some time, because it is simply about looking at the sky. With this gesture, little by little we can intuit how long that day awaits us, and take the appropriate measures to feel comfortable.
However, to discover all the secrets that this wonderful world hides, there is a man named Vyacheslav Korotki who decided to travel neither more nor less than north: where arctic snow experiences the most romantic side of weather over and over again. Because he is not just any meteorologist.
This is the radio that Korotki uses to transmit his data to another weather station, which he then sends to Moscow. Broadcasts may be delayed for several days.
As if trying to flee the cities, Korotki is a man who loves solitude. At the age of sixty-three, he has been living on Russian ships and now in a Russian Arctic outpost called Khodovarikha, where it was sent by the state to measure temperatures, snow, winds, ... in short, to do its job. The nearest town is an hour away by helicopter, which he doesn't seem to dislike at all: when he goes to visit his wife, who lives in Arkhangelsk, he can't find the harmony between the traffic and the noise.
Korotki goes into the Barents Sea to measure the water level.
The photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva, who grew up in the Arctic city of Tiksi, wanted to get closer to this man's life. He spent two long stays with him, and what he discovered was something amazing: Korotki was not a lonely hermit who fled north because of great drama, but because he did not feel at home in modern cities. She even said that it was like it was the wind or the weather itself. The photographs you see in this article were taken by this woman.
Korotki lives and works in a wooden house in the arctic outpost of Khodovarikha.
And you, would you be able to go to the other side of the planet for your passion?