After returning to Europe by sailboat, Greta Thunberg greeted the throngs of press and young climate activists who track her anywhere. She rested for a day, then returned into the sea to be photographed for TIME’s Person of the Year cover.
The picture was taken by Evgenia Arbugaeva, who grew up at the Russian Arctic, and makes photos of remote, silent and improbable beauty. “When TIME requested me to picture Greta, I had been thinking how can I make a portrait which combines gentleness and at precisely exactly the same time guts. How do I capture the intense, concentrated gaze inwards in addition to outwards, that I believe is feature of Greta,” ” she states. “It was not a simple task. ”
Arbugaeva desired a picture that captured the spirit of the young activist. She began by developing a disposition board with references from Botticelli, Monet, Norse mythology, tarot cards, along with Romantic period artwork.
She arrived at Portugal while Thunberg was at sea and started searching greater Lisbon to get a location. “One evening I watched a silent winter beach with no people besides some fishermen,” Arbugaeva states. “I had to consider privacy because the crowd encircles Greta anywhere she goes. “I thought it was fantastic. ”
Photograph from Evgenia Arbugaeva to get TIMEClimate activist Greta Thunberg photographed around the shore in Lisbon, Portugal December 4, 2019
The photo shoot would arrive from the thick of TIME&rsquo. Before setting off from Hampton, Va., three weeks before, Thunberg had been interviewed by federal correspondent Charlotte Alter and climate correspondent Justin Worland aboard the catamaran La Vagabonde. In Lisbon, the teenager met up using London-based correspondent Suyin Haynes, who’d spent five times together with Thunberg at April–at home, school, and on a 1,200 mile train travel –for an earlier profile printed as a member of TIME’s May 27, 2019, “Next Generation Leaders” problem .
Thunberg arrived at the beach in a Tesla leased to deliver her. The sun was going down. “As she stood to get a photograph colored golden pink creating light, ocean tide was rising and waves have been around her,” Evgenia recalls. “Greta stood strong and tall just a couple of strands of her hair fluttering in a gentle breeze. She looked straight ahead. At this moment it felt like all nature components and forces aligned to create the magical –the most cherished gift for a photographer. ”
It may have been the moment of peace the activist would have on the excursion. The following day, she boarded a night train to Madrid, followed by Arbugaeva, Haynes and the media horde which would track her every measure into the Spanish capital, at which thousands exhibited out the U.N. climate conference.
“From then on, crowds of journalists and security guards are continuously Greta,” states Arbugaeva, that graduated from the International Center of Photography at New York in 2009. “It had been the very first time I watched something like this, a hysteria But Greta appeared to handle it well. I could see that she is on her mission. ”
This article is part of why TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year bundle. Read more in the issue and register to your Inside TIME newsletter to be the very first to see our cover every week.
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