The Coldest Place on Earth | Talking Pictures

(gentle string music)

[Narrator] The temperature often dips

to negative double digits in Oymyakon, Russia,

long known as the coldest inhabited place on earth.

It's so cold that people here consume frozen meat,

keep their cars running 24/7 and must warm the ground

with bonfires for several days before burying their dead.

It's the kind of place photographer

Amos Chapple could not resist.

He traveled more than 10,000 to reach this village

of 500 residents tucked away in a remote corner of Siberia.

It took two days to arrive by car from Yakutsk,

the nearest major city, which is 576 miles away.

Chapple spent several weeks shooting Oymyakon and Yakutsk

during the long, dark month of January in 2013 and '14.

His remarkable photos capture the cold, bleak landscape

and the hardy residents who brave unimaginable conditions.

Oymyakon sits just a few hundred miles

away from the Arctic Circle.

It's dark for up to 21 hours a day during the winter

and the temperature averages minus 58.

That's balmy compared to one February in 1933

when Oymyakon earned its title as the coldest place on earth

when the mercury plunged to minus 90.

Here, Arctic chill is simply a fact of life.

Most people use outhouses because

indoor plumbing tends to freeze.

Cars are kept in heated garages or,

if left outside, left running all the time.

Nothing edible grows in the frozen ground,

so people are primarily carnivorous.

Chapple faced unending challenges while shooting.

He had to hold his breath while snapping frames

as the steam from his mouth

would swirl around like cigar smoke.

He wandered around with his jacket half open

trying to keep the camera warm against his body

and drawing it out only when he had a shot.