Yassine Ouhilal goes north

When sought-after surf and travel photographer Yassine Ouhilal describes the Arctic over the phone, he's present in the memory. "Twenty-four hours of daylight in those areas---if you're a photographer, it's like a never-ending sunset, the light's amazing," he details with what sounds like a smile, even if he has to travel on a four-wheel-drive through a few dozen rivers to get to his never-ending sunset. Though Ouhilal has been wintering at his Halifax home for the past five months---what he thinks is a record for his nomadic life---his exhibition of photographs opening at Argyle Fine Art is firmly rooted in the Arctic's landscape, depicting spaces altered by global warming. "I'm basically just telling the stories of different phases of the process of the recession of glaciers," he says. While the "process of recession" may sound economic, Ouhilal's gorgeous shots of the Aurora Borealis bleeding green on the night sky are anything but. See what the man behind the lens is so attracted to, with an opening reception that includes childhood friend Eric Quach's soundscape from thisquietarmy (see page 20), with part of the proceeds going to the Coastal Access Committee of the province's surfing association.