Máze: Life above the Arctic Circle

Far above the Arctic Circle, in the Norway's Lapland, is a small village of the land's native Sámi inhabitants. For the past five years, French photographer and Dwell contributor Céline Clanet has regularly driven from her home in Paris to Lapland to stay with the Sámi, sleep in their tepee-like tents called lavvu (in -13 Fahrenheit weather), and capture their day-to-day lives. Her resulting project is titled Máze. "I photographed people, houses, land, and reindeer that were almost not here today," Clanet says. "They barely escaped being flooded by the waters of a hydroelectric dam project that the Norwegian government planned in the early 1970's, but that thanks to Sámi people's protests and resistance was fortunately aborted. But I have photographed a reality that will undoubtedly transform in the coming century, due to global warming and cultural integration." An exhibit of Clanet's photographs opens Friday during the Les Boréales Festival in Caen, Normandy. Here we present a slideshow of 14 images from Máze, which Clanet describes as "an ambivalent symbol of resistance and helplessness."