The new colonisation of the Tundra: a photoessay by Charles Xelot

This article was originally published on Domus 1033, March 2019

Electric light killed the moonlight 100 years ago and today the unrelenting pervasiveness of a photography that unveils the world has killed exoticism. The globalized gaze provides a clear rendering of all the features of every reality, showing us exactly what the remotest places look like but also robbing us of the luxury, and pleasure, of imagining them in our own minds.

With There is Gas under the Tundra, Frenchman Charles Xelot has managed the tricky balancing act of showing two perspectives of the cultural colonialism in progress, seen from both sides of the lens. The exploitation of the natural gas fields may be a double-edged sword for the Nenets people of Russia’s Yamal Peninsula but, for those who – thanks to the subtle duality of Xelot’s photographs – are witnesses to these upheavals, the presence of a pink pushchair on the snow is even more unsettling, as is the fact that the women shown are wearing sunglasses. The true revelation is that we and our fellow humans are increasingly similar.

French photographer Charles Xelot was born in 1985 and lives between Paris and Saint Petersburg, Russia. He has been exhibited worldwide and has been appointed several awards including the MIFA and TIFA photo awards.