{"product_id":"only-barely-stil-by-catherine-lemble","title":"Only Barely Stil by Catherine Lemblé","description":"\u003cp\u003eOnly Barely Still by Catherine Lemblé is a long-term analogue photography project that reimagines the Arctic, and in particular the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, through the lives of the women who inhabit it. Inspired by Sarah, a former polar bear guard and now expedition leader, Lemblé set out to counter the dominant Western narratives that have long framed the polar regions as a masculine frontier.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile much of the Arctic is home to Indigenous peoples, Svalbard has no Indigenous population and has often been cast by outsiders as a remote, rugged outpost where only the toughest men survive. In the historical record shaped by early exploration, women are largely absent — appearing only as rare exceptions or companions. At the same time, Western imagination has repeatedly feminised the polar landscape as \"virgin\" and \"barren\": a passive body to be conquered, tamed, or protected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly Barely Still works in the space between these enduring misconceptions — about women and about the Arctic — and offers a quiet counter-narrative that centres female presence and perspective. Printed on thin, translucent paper, the one-sided spreads leave facing pages blank, yet faint outlines of nearby images shimmer through, creating an open space for the reader. Alongside Lemblé's photographic narrative, a chapter of historical images from the archives of the Norwegian Polar Institute brings forward a glimpse of the visual history of female presence on Svalbard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book features an essay by Abi Andrews, who traces a lineage of women in Svalbard — from early hunters' companions to contemporary residents — reframing their roles not as footnotes but as central actors in Arctic life. Andrews draws on overlooked histories and ecofeminist thought, and reaches for Ursula K. Le Guin's 1982 short story Sur, in which a team of South American women arrives at the South Pole before the famed European explorers — and chooses to keep their achievement from public knowledge. No flag. No claim. A different idea of what it means to have been somewhere. Andrews asks what the polar story looks like when stripped of its Heroic Age trappings: when heroism is not conquest, but endurance, relation, and the quiet choice to leave no trace behind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Eriskay Connection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53937519886677,"sku":"LEM-BLE","price":35.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0573\/5016\/0524\/files\/only-barely-stil-by-catherine-lemble-9094850.jpg?v=1779005132","url":"https:\/\/www.tipi-bookshop.be\/products\/only-barely-stil-by-catherine-lemble","provider":"Tipi bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}