Eccentric Nights

In 2023, about 40 miles south of the Arctic Circle, photographer Ethan Aaro Jones undertook a residency at the Bær Art Center in remote Hofsós, Iceland. His time spent there coincided with the summer solstice, which at that latitude extends constant sunlight for days on end. “There’s a strangeness to a sun that refuses to set—it reshapes nightly routines to the point where having a dark bedroom is a conscious choice, while also serving as a reminder that the world doesn’t always bend to human desire,” he says.

Jones’ work often explores the juxtaposition of the natural and built environment, observing tensions between human intention and ecological and elemental forces. During the long days he experience in Iceland, when the sun didn’t set for more more than a week, he photographed the orange illumination moving across his bedroom walls throughout the night, and during the day, he explored the local area’s infrastructure in the pale northern light.

“During the daytime, when the sunshine was bright white, I saw the altered landscape as a clear result of a collective will to shape the world to fit our desires and needs,” Jones says. “Each day I explored this built environment, and each night I would succumb to the light dancing across the walls wondering which scenes and experiences were more unnatural. I think of this series of photographs as a response to the world around me and a curiosity about the perceptions of place and what it means to know where you are.”

The images Jones captured in Iceland are now on view through February 21 in his solo exhibition, Eccentric Nights, at Filter Photo in Chicago. Bær Art Center is also currently accepting applications for two-week-long international artist residencies during June and July, with an application deadline of March 15. ✧

All images courtesy of the artist.