Portraits of people living a “Life on the Line” at the Arctic Circle

Photographer Cristian Barnett reveals the “Life on the Line” photo project which consists of striking portraits of people living in eight countries around the Arctic Circle.

People think that normal human life is not possible at the Arctic Circle. However, multiple countries and territories have areas located around the Arctic Circle and, surprisingly enough, people live there.

Still, life is hard to be described as being normal, considering the fact that the sun never sets during some parts of the summer and that the sun never rises during some weeks of the winter.

Either way, life prevails and photographer Cristian Barnett has set on a quest to capture portraits of people who are living in the Arctic Circle. The results are enclosed in the “Life on the Line” photo series and they include striking photographs of people from eight different countries.

Life on the Line: striking portraits of people living near the Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle brings together a total of eight countries. They are Canada, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States of America. These countries are home to people known as Inuit, Sami, or Nenet among others.

The goal of photographer Cristian Barnett was to travel to all these countries and to meet people of different cultures.

Temperatures do not go over 21-22 degrees Celsius / 70 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and above -27 degrees Celsius / -18 degrees Celsius in the winter. Sometimes the sun never sets and sometimes it never rises. We would consider this as a “Life on the Line”, but for them this is just everyday life and they are completely adapted to it.

People living in these eight countries are parts of different cultures, but they are brought together by the same purpose: to make life better for them in any way possible.

Eight years, 11 trips, one photo book by Cristian Barnett

Cristian Barnett is a photographer based in London, UK with many years of experience in the industry. The “Life on the Line” series was a multi-year project which began in 2006. After visiting the Arctic Circle for 11 times in 8 years, the artist has created a photo book, which was published during the fall of 2014.

For people interested in the photo book, you can buy it at Amazon for about $30. It contains photos from Cristian Barnett, while Huw Lewis-Jones is featured as a contributor. Hugh Brody is the author and his words accompany the striking portraits of people living in the Arctic Circle.

Mainly a portrait photographer, Cristian Barnett is an acclaimed artist with many projects under his belt and many features in magazines. He also has a personal website where you can check out more of his projects.