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Olympus - Frost
 
 
Silent witness Nick Danziger, one of the UK’s foremost documentary photographers, was been given unprecedented access to Number 10 during the ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s last weeks in office. His photos give a rare insight into life within the corridors of power. /consumer/208_silent_witness.htm /consumer/images/banner_1.jpg Underwater photography Fascinating worlds full of colours and details that will remain undiscovered to the photographic eye without special equipment: Underwater photography counts among the last great adventures of modern camera work and offers motives of... /consumer/208_underwater_photography.htm /consumer/images/banner_2.jpg /consumer/208_17709.htm Read more Read all articles Read all articles

Frost


Headphones and a woolly hat prevent this young man from freezing, at least for a short time. People only leave their houses if they have to.


In the winter, life in Yakutsk is dictated by the cold. This woman
protects her airways against minus 31 degrees Celsius

     
YOU HAVE TO BE TOUGH to make it through the winter months in Yakutsk:
with temperatures as low as –50 degrees Celsius, this is the coldest city in the world. The permafrost does not even thaw at up to +30 degrees in the summer, which makes drilling for wells at depths of hundreds of metres virtually impossible. The drinking water comes from the Lena River. Engineering work for an underground rail network or a sewage system has also never been possible. Houses stand on piles to prevent the heat emanating from the buildings from melting the subsoil below and rendering them unstable. – Life in Yakutsk resembles a permanent state of emergency ...
Photographer Björn Steinz loves a challenge, and the Siberian city  seemed a suitable place to put a long-planned reportage in the former Soviet Union into practice. The 38-year-old, who lives in the Czech Republic, equipped himself against the extreme temperatures in a mountaineering store. “Thin, tightfitting special gloves were very important so that I could still operate the cameras”, says Steinz. Three cameras were supposed to guarantee photography in all conditions, in case one or even two of them were unable to cope with the below-zero temperatures. “When doing research prior to my trip I couldn’t find any concrete information on how a digital camera might react to the temperatures I expected. I therefore wanted to be absolutely certain of being able to work in Siberia.” Yet the E-3 proved to be reliable. However, Björn Steinz did struggle with a general problem during the cold: power supply. The photographer kept several BLM-1 batteries warm with his own body heat under his clothes as only 150 to 300 shots were possible per battery. At minus 30 degrees and lower, Steinz could not work outside for longer than 45 to 60 minutes – and then a really serious problem
occurred: “As soon you as come out of the cold into warm rooms, condensation forms. As the camera body is cold, the lens is immediately covered with a layer of ice – after a few minutes it melts and the camera is completely wet. But the dust and splash protection certainly proved its worth on this job ...”
The Czech-based documentary and reportage photographer not only brought countless pictures home with him: new friendships were forged with the extremely hospitable and helpful Yakuts. And the knowledge that you can get by in Yakutsk with a very basic command of Russian and that there is really only one existential problem there: being a vegetarian in a place where fish and pony's liver are national dishes ...
  


Hard work in Yakutsk: selling newspapers in a tent at minus 30 degrees.

 


A monument to the most ardent champion of socialism: Vladimir
Ilyich Ulyanov, also known as Lenin.
He has a square named after him in the middle of Yakutsk.

     


Preparations for a wedding: real flowers cannot survive the
frosty temperatures, therefore decorative imitations are used.

    
The permafrost restricts the possibilities of public transport.
There are no underground or urban trains in the city. Instead,
bus transport is very popular. In the winter, however,
visibility is limited as the humidity freezes the windows from
the inside.
     
 
Life in the Siberian metropolis is difficult for people
who do not like fish, which is one the staple foods here.		    


Outside: one last cigarette before going
hunting in the Siberian taiga.

     

Björn Steinz

Born: 1970 in Bad Homburg (Germany).

Education: Completed studies at FAMU (Prague Academy of Performing Arts) –Department of Photography.

Exhibitions: 2004-2006: project (“Images from the soul”, “Music in images”) with the blind musician and photographer Mario Bihari.
To be seen as a touring exhibition in Zagreb, Seoul, Los Angeles, Oslo, Hanoi and other cities.

1999: dissertation presentation in the Prague National Gallery Veletrzny Palac.Slide projection at the 5th International Photo Days in Herten (Germany).

Clients: Collaboration with the London agency Panos Pictures, Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) and other national and international agencies, magazines and newspapers.


http://www.oka2.com/