3rd place
bronze star award
Matteo Busetto
italy 
Photo © Matteo Busetto
title
Ghost town in the Arctic
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entry description
The mining town of Pyramiden, a Russian settlement in the Norwegian Svalbard Islands (the northernmost inhabited lands in the world), experienced its greatest expansion in the second half of the 20th century, when it was the settlement with more than 1,000 inhabitants furthest north in the world (79 degrees north). But in October 1998 the primacy passed to Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, after Pyramiden was abandoned within a few months on the orders of Russian authorities due to the closure of mining activities. Since that day, the town appears "crystallized", and nothing has been changed: the (northernmost) bust of Lenin continues to dominate the square and surrounding buildings, which have remained almost perfectly intact thanks in part to the polar climate, although Arctic animals (reindeer, sea birds, Arctic foxes) have now taken over the settlement, a kind of huge open-air museum of the Soviet era.about the photographer
Medical doctor, working for the italian Emergency Medical Service and Helicopter Emergency Medical service. Discovering photography has awakened in me the dream of exploring people and the world.back to gallery
