In 2023, artist Laure Winants traveled to Svalbard as part of a mission for the Polar Institute. She accompanied a multidisciplinary team of researchers studying the evolution of geological time—spanning millennia—within this vast territory where humans are but a tiny fraction of all living things. For five months, she sets up her studio on the Arctic ice sheet. Immersed in this white wilderness, the photographer uses techniques she developed specifically to capture the optical and light phenomena unique to this region, thereby telling a story of geological time. Winants conducts experiments using samples of ice cores, sea ice, and permafrost, which she places on photosensitive paper. The light passing through them reveals the colors of time. Winants’ approach follows in the footsteps of the pioneers of photography who, from the very beginnings of the medium—notably Hippolyte Bayard and Nicéphore Nièpce in the mid-19th century—conducted numerous experiments on photosensitive surfaces. Winants continues their explorations of the possibilities of light and what it allows us to capture of reality. The images she produces—spectrograms, crystallographies, and polarizations—tell a story that dates back several million years.

Time Capsule propose un voyage temporel, car chez Winants, le temps fait lumière : capturée sur la surface photosensible, celle-ci révèle des récits invisibles. Les couleurs qui apparaissent (bleu, rose, vert, jaune…) résultent de la composition chimique des bulles d’air encapsulées dans la glace (gaz divers datant de milliers d’années). La photographie donne ainsi à voir les archives du vivant. La démarche exploratoire de Laure Winants questionne les potentialités de l’image et ce qu’elle « encapsule », à savoir les informations du réel qu’elle contient et qu’il nous est impossible de voir ni de comprendre à l’oeil nu.