Erika Larsen’s project on the Sami was featured in the August 2010 issue of PDN.  Additional images can be found on the Redux Archive here.

Erika Larsen photographed Kristian Gustavson and his team on of eco adventurers on a clean water expedition down the Mississippi River for the June 2010 issue of Reader’s Digest.

Goalllllllllll!

Erika Larsen’s multimedia piece for AARP Bulletin features the New England Over the Hill Soccer League (NEOTHSL). NEOTHSL is one of the largest best-organized adult soccer organizations in America Go to AARP.org to see the full story

Erika Larsen’s photograph for the April 2010 issue of Smart Money.

Erika Larsen photographed William Toye for the April/May issue of Garden and Gun Magazine.

Erika Larsen photographed Kelly DiNardo, the food writer who went gluten-free diet for a whole year for the April 17 2010 edition of Woman’s Day.

Erika Larsen reflects on her experiences thus far with the indigenous Sámi, in the Sápmi region of northern Sweden, in a wide-ranging interview.

What is your project in Sweden?

I came to Sápmi and more specifically northern Sweden to live and learn from families of Sámi reindeer herders. Sámi are the indigenous people living in the Arctic Circle region of northern Scandinavia and it is the largest area in the world with an ancestral way of life based on the seasonal migrations of the animals. Sámi are by tradition reindeer herders and have lived a nomadic lifestyle based on the reindeer migration. [...]

I am a storyteller. Here my imagery engages, on a daily basis, the lives of these people. I am creating photographs, film footage and written journals of my time here.

My filming explores the Sámi’s symbiotic relationship with the environment, illustrates their existence in today’s world and continues to seek the mystery and beauty which fueled past generations providing sustenance for the modern Sámi today.[...]

Read the interview in it’s entirety at fulbright.state.gov

Erika Larsen’s feature project, Lavvos and Reindeer, has been installed at the ‘Projections of Reality: Encounters with the [un]Familiar‘ at the Red October gallery in Moscow, Russia.  Part of her on-going documentary series of life in the Artic regions, Lavvos is the product of her desire to “look at an original hunter-gatherer nomadic society.”

From the ProjectionsofReality.org site;

“To make the project work, she had to fully immerse herself in the environment she wanted to study; she now spends entire seasons in the area, living with a Sami family of reindeer owners and sharing their daily routine, with all its joys, worries, and hardships. These long-term encounters have afforded Erika a rare, insider’s perspective on the beauty and power of this land.”

Launced in March 2010, ‘Projections of Reality’ is a “unique international exhibition project that was launched in Moscow in March 2010. ‘Projections’ introduces cutting-edge visual storytelling to a wide audience in the context of the rapidly changing media market, digital and participatory media.”  (link) The exhibition also features works by photographers Todd Heisler, Yuri Kozyrev, Paolo Pellegrin, and Tim Hetherington, among others.

The gallery is open now through the 4th of April and is located at Bersenevskaya embankment, 6, building 3.

Erika Larsen – Photographer from Michael Kasino on Vimeo.

Writer Scott Bowen first met Erika Larsen while on assignment covering an ice fishing contest for Fortune – Small Business in Walker, MN. On True/Slant, Erika and Scott join forces once again to discuss the fullbright project Erika has been working on for the last year, “Sami, The People“.

Here is an exerpt from the interview:

“I first met professional photographer Erika Larsen when I was on an assignment for Fortune – Small Business magazine in February 2008. She and I, and our videographer, FSB photo editor Katy Binder, went to Walker, MN, to spend time with about 17,000 revelers at the annual Eelpout Festival, a huge mid-February party minimally disguised as an ice-fishing contest. That story ran in the last issue of FSB this December, and you can read it on-line here (it’s now content for CNNMoney.com).

The second day in Walker, out on the 36-inch-thick ice of Leech Lake, the temperature at daybreak was -20 F. I was wearing every thermal layer I posses and a snowsuit rated to -40 F. I was doing o.k., but it was not easy, and all I was doing was interviewing people. Larsen often took off her gloves and face-covering to operate her fabulous 4×5 field camera. She showed such aplomb about her work in those conditions that she seemed to possess a deep Nordic endurance.

So I was not surprised to find out that she is half Norwegian, and I was also not entirely surprised but gladly impressed to learn back in 2009 that she had won a Fulbright grant to venture to Sweden to live among Sámi reindeer herders.

I managed to catch up with her, on-line, while she took a break from her fieldwork in Sweden, and we conducted an interview via e-mail. (Note: All photos here copyrighted to Erika Larsen Photography.)

1. What first generated your interest in the Sámi?

I wanted to live with an original hunter-gatherer-herding society in order to understand the primal drive of the modern hunter today. I also wanted to learn about natural plants, foods, and remedies that existed in the arctic landscape.

I should specify I am living exclusively with Sámi reindeer herders and my Fulbright project is only focusing on that part of Sámi culture. About ten percent of the Sámi are herders. There are also coastal Sámi, who fish, and Sámi of other lifestyles who also speak a different language.

2. In the beginning, with your Sámi host family, did you experience any moments of culture shock?

Not really. I think I was very open to learning about the Sámi culture and lifestyle and never went expecting things were going to be anything like my life in the U.S. There was an inevitable period of comparing and contrasting what I was accustomed to, in terms of lifestyle, but this has greatly tapered off.”

See the rest Erika’s interview with Scott Bowen on True/Slant.