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1. Photographer Amos Chapple travels to what is considered to be the coldest inhabited settlement on Earth: The Sakha Republic of Russia.
Amos Chapple
3. Many ethnic Russians and Ukrainians were assigned to live in the capital city of Yakutsk during the soviet era.
Amos Chapple
A local woman enters Preobrazhensky Cathedral in a swirl of freezing mist.
6. Steam from factories, cars and people creates a thick fog in winter which lingers through the coldest weeks.
10. The village of Oymyakon lies a two day drive from the city of Yakutsk, the regional capital.
Amos Chapple
12. Cars must be run continuously when making the journey to Oymyakon, so 24-hour petrol stations are essential to winter transport.
13. Workers in the isolated petrol stations of the region work two-weeks on, two weeks off.
Amos Chapple
Amos Chapple
A view of Stalin’s “Road of Bones”, the route to Oymyakon, on a -50c evening. Without a rail link to the city, the highway remains the only major land route into and out of Yakutsk.
16. The highway was constructed with Gulag prison labour. Prisoners who died during construction were interred in the fabric of the road.
Amos Chapple
18. Originally settled by reindeer herders, Oymyakon has a population today of 500 and is known by its residents as the “Pole of Cold.”
Amos Chapple
Amos Chapple
21. Most toilets in the town are long trips out on the street due to the difficulty of digging plumbing through the permanently frozen soil.
Amos Chapple
Alexander Platnov, 52, a retired teacher, dressed for a quick dash to the toilet.
24. The town’s only shop supplies provisions for the entire isolated community.
26. Heating is provided for the village by a coal-fired water heating plant. Every morning this digger delivers fresh coal to the plant and carries away the burnt cinder.
Amos Chapple
Amos Chapple
29. Here, warmth is the most important of commodities.
Amos Chapple
Farmer Nikolai Petrovich closes the door to his cows’ heavily-insulated stable after putting the flock to bed for the night.
Amos Chapple
Oymakon village at dawn; the heating plant and its constant plume of coal smoke at left.
32. Amos Chapple is a photographer based in New Zealand. To view more of his work, check out his website at http://www.amoschapplephoto.com/.
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