Dominika Gesicka
This Is Not Real Life
[ EPF 2016 FINALIST ]
There is a place where no one is born and no one dies. Of course you can die anywhere but you cannot be buried here as it has been discovered that bodies fail to decompose here.
You cannot be born here because pregnant women are to return to the mainland to give birth. There are no cats, no trees, no traffic lights. There is no amusement park, but there is a circus troupe. In the winter time it is completely dark, but in the summer sun never sets.
The place is called Longyearbyen and it is the largest settlement and an administrative center of Svalbard. It is also the world’s northernmost city. Although it is difficult to regard it the best place to live, many people fall in love with it at first sight. Some people came here just for two weeks and stayed for five years or more, but not many decide to settle down here permanently.
Sometimes you have an impression that people here are trying to escape from something; that this is just a retreat.
This is not a real life.
Short Bio
Dominika Gesicka, born in 1981 in Wloclawek (Poland). Graduated from International Affairs at Warsaw School of Economics (Poland), student of Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic). Member of People You May Know collective. Laureate of Show off programme, Photomonth in Cracow (2014). Finalist of Lens Culture Exposure Award (2016) and a winner of the Idea Tap Foundation and Magnum Photos grant (2015).
Cool stuff, Dominika. Red filter over a flash? Interesting effect.
Interesting place. Interesting photographs.
The red man really pulled me in.
Na Zdrowie.
I love this essay
This is simply all together too good for common sense. And it’s the third Far North essay in this EPF series!
Cool…
very fascinated… first, by color and second,unseen poem.
p.s.) David. I’ve sent an e-mail. Please check it.
This is lovely. From start to finish.
By far the most interesting essay of late,it doesn’t pretend to be what it isn’t
What happened here? How come this essay didn’t come out in the top three? I can’t understand it. This girl has authorship and is different from the rest. This is without doubt an example of fine rare air. Photography needs more work like this.