Art: Simon Roberts

POLYARNYE NOCHI (POLAR NIGHTS)
SIMON ROBERTS

As anyone with a Facebook account knows, we all love photos of the snow. But for Brit photographer Simon Roberts the bar is set a little higher than endless reportage of urban snowmen. To really get a taste of what inclement weather is like, winter in northern Russia is as icy a setting as any, with their famed nights of near 24-hour darkness throughout December and January. Incredibly a third of Russians live in these conditions, so it’s no wonder they’re ripped to the tits on vodka most of the time.??The depictions of indigenous frontier spirit show the human subjects as oppressively dwarfed, both by the imposing climate and the vast physical structures created despite it. There’s an amazing bleakness to the photographs, heightened by the blue almost-light, highlighting an uneasy coexistence between man and nature that sees both equally determined to triumph. This exhibition closes soon, but we saw it the other day and it’s just brilliant so make sure you don’t miss it.

Crane Kalman, Kensington Gardens?Until Thursday 7th

WORDS BY NICK COQUET