Camera obscura is a Latin phrase meaning "dark chamber" or "dark room." The phrase is fitting for photography in a place like Svalbard, where the light disappears for over two months every winter.

In the February 2023 installment of The Shot, photographer Daniel Cole talks about covering climate stories on a remote island in northern Norway, in the darkness during the polar night.

The Shot is a monthly series showcasing top photojournalism from photographers at The Associated Press. Each month, AP photographers will share the stories behind some of their iconic imagery.

Produced by AP News staff. The sponsor was not involved in the creation of this content.

Daniel Cole

If we consider photography to be the capturing of light, how is it possible to create photographs in a place where there is no light? This was the challenge I faced as a photographer on assignment for the AP’s climate and religion teams in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard during the polar night, a period from mid-November through the end of January where the sun does not rise, shrouding the arctic landscape in constant darkness.

An aurora is pictured during a long exposure in Longyearbyen, Norway, Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023. As climate change impacts the Svalbard archipelago faster and deeper than the rest of the world, its pastor is helping the community of miners and environmentalists grapple with transformation in this unforgiving, awe-inspiring wilderness. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Model: Sony a1 | Lens: Sony 24mm | F-Stop: 1.4 | Shutter Speed: 1/15 | ISO: 400

The harsh conditions and lack of light required inventive solutions that could serve to illuminate the polar night and shed light on the subjects of our stories. I decided to shoot handheld and with wide aperture prime lenses in order to move the way I wanted as I photographed people in their environments.

I found that when there is very little light in a scene, your eye becomes hyper sensitive to the very smallest of light sources which ended up guiding much of the compositional and aesthetic aspects of the pictures. Fittingly enough for a religion story, I had to let myself be guided by the light.

The Rev. Siv Limstrand is pictured at Svalbard Kirke in Longyearbyen, Norway, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Founded for and by coal miners, Svalbard Kirke is literally a beacon in the dark – its sanctuary and fireplace-warmed lounge stay open 24/7 even in winter, when the sun never rises this close to the North Pole. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Model: Sony a1 | Lens: Sony 50mm | F-Stop: 1.4 | Shutter Speed: 1/250 | ISO: 2000

I think that this approach forced me to slow down as a photographer, to anticipate how the scene was going to change as the few light sources available would illuminate people and environments in unpredictable ways. Pictures would appear and disappear in milliseconds depending on the movement of a someone’s headlamp.

The harsh conditions of the arctic circle required a certain level of preparedness and a high tolerance for feeling cold. Taking my gloved hand out of my jacket pocket to brave the cold for each photograph was a humbling experience, one that made you think twice before daring to lift the camera up to your eye. Batteries would deplete much quicker than I was used to in Marseille, where I am usually based in southern France.

Reindeer graze along the streets of Longyearbyen, Norway, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Model: Sony a1 | Lens: Sony 50mm | F-Stop: 1.2 | Shutter Speed: 1/200 | ISO: 5000

Part of our reporting took us deep into Longyearbyen’s last remaining coal mine, Gruve 7. Lit only by coalminers headlamps and shooting through thick atmospheric dust, I was lucky to have dust resistant camera bodies and prime lenses fast enough to capture Norway’s last coal miners at the bottom of the earth in their archipelago at the end of the world.

Coal miners refill machinery with oil at the bottom of the Gruve 7 coal mine in Adventdalen, Norway, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. Gruve 7, the last Norwegian mine in one of the fastest warming places on earth, was scheduled to shut down this year and only got a reprieve through 2025 because of the energy crisis driven by the war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Model: Sony a1 | Lens: Sony 35mm | F-Stop: 1.4 | Shutter Speed: 1/60 | ISO: 6400

While I usually photograph people for the stories I work on, Svalbard was an opportunity to turn my lens to the environment and its abstract qualities. The polar night would give way to spectacular light effects in the sky, lighting up the vast landscapes in fascinating ways.

It was a privilege to be in such a beautiful place not as a landscape photographer looking for the technically perfect shot, but instead as a photojournalist searching for images that would tell the story of Svalbard and the changes facing the community that lives there.