After a recent cold snap in Siberia, global interest has surged in the Russian village of Oymyakon, the coldest inhabited place on Earth. Photographer Amos Chapple has revisited the images he took on a journey to the village in 2012. Many are published here for the first time.
Siberia's 'Pole Of Cold'
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The village of Oymyakon, with its heating plant chugging coal smoke into the freezing air. It was dubbed "The Pole Of Cold" after recording a temperature of minus 71.2 degrees Celsius in 1933. The record freeze was just a few degrees shy of the minus 78.5 C temperature of dry ice.
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The view from a Soviet-era van during the two-day drive from Yakutsk, the regional capital, to Oymyakon.
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Yakutsk, with a population of around 270,000, holds its own title: that of the coldest city on Earth.
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In January 2018, temperatures in the city dropped below minus 50 degrees Celsius.
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A local in Oymyakon pauses for a quick photo during a toilet run.
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Toilets in the village are simple pits (covered by shacks like this) due to underground plumbing being impractical in the shifting, permanently frozen ground of Oymyakon.
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Oymyakon means "nonfrozen water" in the local language. Thanks to this spring, which remains unfrozen throughout the winter, it is a welcome stop for herders of reindeer and cattle.
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Many animals in the region, such as the Yakutian horse (pictured), are able to survive outside through bone-cracking cold. Yakutian horses roam semiwild through the winters and dig through the snow with their hooves to nibble at the grass below.
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A breed of dog known as the laika has adapted to the cold of the region...
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...though some of the dogs are clearly uncomfortable through nights outdoors.
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Cows in the village are housed through the winter in thickly insulated sheds like this.
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Photographer Amos Chapple while working in Oymyakon. The New Zealander says he occasionally had to avoid drunks in the town who threatened him with violence.
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Locals emerge from the village's only store. Chapple says the store was decorated with children's drawings illustrating the evils of alcohol: "It was clearly an attempt by the local school to shame Oymyakon's dads into drinking less."
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A bulldozer dumps coal ash burned by the village's heating plant. The plant works through the day and night to pump hot water through the pipes of the village.
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Frozen shoes in a house in Oymyakon. Chapple says the village guesthouse he stayed in was relatively comfortable, if you used a little creativity: "The heating pipes near my bed were sizzling hot, but the walls were icy cold. If you wriggled into just the right position between the two, you could get a relatively good night's sleep."
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Landscape near Oymyakon. Chapple says "as a photographer, the trip was wonderful; as a person, it was pretty tough. I have huge respect for people who can live in a place like this all year round."