Catherine Lemblé’s long-term analogue photography project takes Svalbard as its ground. The Norwegian archipelago has no Indigenous population and has often been cast by outsiders as a remote, rugged outpost where only the toughest men survive. In the historical record shaped by early exploration, women are largely absent, appearing mainly as rare exceptions or companions. Inspired by Sarah, a former polar bear guard and now expedition leader, Lemblé set out to counter dominant Western narratives that have long framed the polar regions as a masculine frontier. Her photographs centre female presence and perspective in the far north.
The book’s structural decisions carry as much weight as its subject. Carel Fransen’s design uses thin, translucent paper and one-sided spreads; the facing pages stay blank, yet faint outlines of nearby images shimmer through. Reading becomes an exercise in partial visibility, apt for a place where the landscape is half light, half whiteout. The exposed softcover was lithographed by Marc Gijzen and printed and bound by Wilco Art Books. At 230 × 310 mm and 164 pages, the production makes the object feel closer to a working document than a display album.
Alongside Lemblé’s photographic narrative is a chapter of historical images of women on Svalbard from the archives of the Norwegian Polar Institute, bringing forward a glimpse into the visual history of female presence. Abi Andrews’s essay traces a lineage of women in Svalbard, from early hunters’ companions to contemporary residents, reframing their roles not as footnotes but as central actors in Arctic life. Drawing on overlooked histories, ecofeminist thought, and the counter-myths of writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Andrews asks what the polar story looks like when stripped of its “Heroic Age” trappings, when heroism is not conquest but endurance, relation, and the quiet choice to leave no flag behind.
For a serious collector, the book merits attention precisely because it withholds the grand gesture. It is a considered collaboration among photographer, designer and author, and its material choices bear directly on its meaning. The first edition of 1,200 copies treats the Arctic as a subject of long attention rather than spectacle, which is a more durable claim than any seasonal drama.
