Inner Light

In 2020, I got invited to Gamvik, a remote fishing village on the Norwegian coast of the Barents Sea in Finnmark county, to take a portrait of a community that strives not to disappear. Places like Gamvik are walking a tightrope, risking the loss of life support as the global economy makes their models irrelevant, and I was to become a resident photographer for 200 people on behalf of the local museum. Working in a small community brought me a tangible sense of belonging I haven't felt before. So when I was offered a position at the local lighthouse the year afterwards, I decided to prolong my work and stay.

Michał Siarek is a photographer by trade, visual storyteller by profession and journalist by inclination. He graduated from the Polish National Film School in Lodz with his seminal book that traced the modern myth of Alexander the Great. "Alexander", initially meant as a documentary editorial, evolved towards a microhistory, defined by the historian Charles Joyner as an act of "[asking] large questions in small places". He currently works and lives in northern Norway. Winner of The New East Prize 2016 and the FIDAL Youth Photography Award, he was nominated to the Luma Dummy Book Award 2018, La Fabrica / Photo London Dummy Award 2018, and the MACK First Book Award 2019.