Polar Night feels like wandering through an otherworldly, almost apocalyptic landscape. There is an overwhelming sense of disorientation as one flips through Mahaney’s concise edit of just 26 pictures, a feeling heightened by his use of both bleak black-and- white and surreal colour photographs. “Because it’s a small project, I wanted there to be some push and pull,” he says. “I didn’t want it to be single note. So I varied my aesthetic approach throughout, just
like I do with assignment work.” Throughout our conversation, he repeatedly acknowledges the role his commercial background has played in this – his first – personal project. “Some things are lit by flash, others are naturally lit. Some pictures are more action-filled, others are still, quiet moments,” he reflects.
I pause at the first picture, attempting to decipher the scale of his subject matter, which I know is snow, but could just as easily masquerade as a sand dune in another context. A few pages later, a striking black-and-white image of a snow-ploughed path, as if lit from a car’s headlight, appears to lead off into a black nothingness. On closer inspection, there is a lone cross, just peeking out from the snow, along the road’s edge in the distance. “It’s hard on the mind, body and spirit to live in this town,” says Mahaney. “Darkness brings darkness. Crime, suicide, substance abuse and depression spike drastically during the dark months. Northern Alaska has one of the highest suicide rates in the nations, specifically impacting their indigenous communities. This heavy, intense energy could be felt without actually being in direct contact with any of those unsavoury side effects.”
I stop again at the sideview of a house, icicles lining the eaves, a car barely visible under mounds of snow. “I don’t remember where that magenta light was coming from,” Mahaney says, pointing at the snow blanketing the home’s roof, candy-like lavender in hue. “The colours of this place are bizarre. Normally you wouldn’t notice the temperature of lights. But when it’s only night-time, you begin to see all these different colours from artificial light sources.”