Reindeer

Reindeer – Skalstugan, Jämtland

The light breaks through the morning mist, filling the air with movement and warmth.
The breath of the reindeer turns to steam, their antlers weaving a slow dance in the dust of snow.
It is a scene as much about belonging as it is about survival —
a meeting between people, animals, and light, where time itself seems almost tangible.

This photograph was captured on film with a 6×4.5 Mamiya camera, on a bitterly cold morning in Skalstugan, Jämtland.
The air was so cold that the snow turned to dust as the reindeer ran around me,
and the rising sun cast long shadows through the haze.
My fingers were freezing, the reindeer tense — it was the time of the herding, renskiljning.
A memory for life, not least for the privilege of being among the families of Njarka sameby,
and those who had come across from Norway to share in this ancient rhythm of the north.