In this article I discuss the creative potential of alternative photographic processes in anthropological research. I argue that an experimental, fine art approach to photography can be more effective in fieldwork than the ubiquitous documentary style favoured to illustrate ethnographic texts. Using my own early-stage research, I discuss the potential of using photograms, cyanotypes, and archival images. I discuss the potential of these forms for multimedia interventions, through the inclusion of text into the physical image-objects themselves. This approach to visual methodologies challenges the positioning of the researcher to their participants and allows collaboration and creative engagement in the field. It connects visual practice with phenomenological approaches to experience

The modern chest freezer has significantly altered food storage practices in Sweden. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Arjeplog (rural Northern Sweden/ Swedish Sápmi), this article investigates how the chest freezer plays a crucial role in more-than-human networks of food, sustainability, and living well in the local community. Among participants of this ethnographic study, most of the protein stored in freezers was hunted or foraged from the local landscape, and participants felt “rich and content” with freezers full of “natural” food. Building on theories of new-materiality and the more-than-human, I examine the relationships between moose, freezer, forest, and the body, arguing that the chest freezer is not a static object of symbolic meaning but a vibrant actor in these networks of “the good life”. This paper is an empirically grounded contribution to studies of freezing practices and landscape relations in Northern Sweden. 

The modern chest freezer has significantly altered food storage practices in Sweden. Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Arjeplog (rural Northern Sweden/ Swedish Sápmi), this article investigates how the chest freezer plays a crucial role in more-than-human networks of food, sustainability, and living well in the local community. Among participants of this ethnographic study, most of the protein stored in freezers was hunted or foraged from the local landscape, and participants felt “rich and content” with freezers full of “natural” food. Building on theories of new-materiality and the more-than-human, I examine the relationships between moose, freezer, forest, and the body, arguing that the chest freezer is not a static object of symbolic meaning but a vibrant actor in these networks of “the good life”. This paper is an empirically grounded contribution to studies of freezing practices and landscape relations in Northern Sweden. 

This visual essay reflexively explores experimental photographic research methods. Using cyanotypes, beer can cameras, maps, and exhibitions to make physical spaces and surfaces occupied by photography tangible, I show how these methods work with traditional anthropological approaches to orient us to how local place is represented, and how this visual critique connects with the ways landscape is experienced in contrast to historical national discourses. These methods were aimed at having a better understanding of local experiences and understandings of Northern landscapes in rural Sweden.

I examine how tensions between locals, environmentalists, and State politicians in a small town in northern Sweden are reinforced through national discourses of climate change and sustainability. Turbulence emerges across different scales of responsibility and environmental engagement in Arjeplog as politicians are seen by local inhabitants to be engaging more with the global conversation than with the local experience of living in the north. Moreover, many people view the environmentalist discourses from the politicians in the south, whom they deem to be out of touch with rural life, as threatening to the local experience of nature. These discourses pose a threat to their reliance on petrol, essential for travel, and are experienced locally as a continuation of the south’s historical interference in the region. Based on thirteen months of field research, I argue that mistrust of the various messengers of climate change, including politicians and environmentalists, is a crucial part of the scepticism towards the climate change discourse and that we as researchers need to utilise the strengths of anthropology in examining the reception (or refusal) of climate change. The locals’ mistrust of environment discourses had implications for my positionality, as I was associated with these perceived ‘outsider’ sensibilities. While the anthropology of climate change often focusses on physical impacts and resilience, I argue that we need to pay due attention to the local turbulence surrounding the discourses of climate change, which exist alongside the physical phenomena.