Dive deep to find art under the ice. Russia's northwest Karelia region staged an exhibition in the freezing waters of the White Sea at the end of February.
Photographed from above, acres of snow engulf buildings as far as the eye can see.
Up close, the surreal details shine through; light fixtures adorned with intricate icicles, couches enveloped in snowdrift and sheets of ice spilling in from open doors, frozen in time.
These are the abandoned ghost towns towns that surround the coal-mining center of Vorkuta in Russia's Arctic north, swathed in snow and ice following recent brutally cold temperatures.
Moscow-based photographer Maria Passer traveled to the area to capture how the extreme weather has impacted abandoned buildings.
The town of Vorkuta was an infamous Gulag labor camp from the 1930s to 1960s, with prisoners forced to mine the region for coal.
In the later years of the Soviet Union, people moved from across the USSR to the area for mining jobs.
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"To attract miners to live in hard climate conditions the salaries here were really good," Passer tells CNN Travel.
After the Soviet Union collapsed and coal mines started to close, the towns' fortunes changed again. Faced with no job opportunities, many left the isolated region.
This migration has led to an abundance of abandoned structures in the villages around Vorkuta, which Passer has been photographing for the past three weeks.
"It's really a tragedy that many people have to leave their houses and to go to live somewhere else," she says.
"But these locations, they have an abandoned beauty. I'm trying to see this, and to show this, in my pictures."
Photos: Inside Russia's deep frozen ghost towns
An inside view from snow and ice covered abandoned building in Sementnozavodsky region, 19 kilometers from coal-mining town Vorkuta, Komi Republic, Russia on March 1.
A staircase is frozen inside an abandoned building in the village of Severny.
An aerial view shows frozen equipment at a construction site in the coal-mining town Vorkuta.
A room inside an abandoned building in a village near the coal-mining town of Vorkuta.
This photo was taken in the village of Severny. Passer says some people still live in this building.
This photo of an icicle-covered lamp was taken in the village of Cementozavodsky.
Abandoned beauty
Passer is a photographer who hunts out abandoned places on her travels.
"I like to explore the world and take pictures of all the things which seemed beautiful to me," she says. "I'm deep into urbex -- urban exploration."
Passer was aware of Vorkuta and its history, but she was inspired to travel from Moscow to the area after seeing recent images taken by her photographer friend Lana Sator.
Within a week or so, Passer had arrived in Vorkuta and the two friends were exploring together.
Wandering these forgotten spaces is "really atmospheric, and really impressive," says Passer.
Some of the buildings she captured on camera were completely deserted, others semi-abandoned.
For Passer, her most striking shots were taken in the village of Severny, inside a green-hued building coated in snow.
Passer says some people still live in this apartment block, so the water is still on.
But in some of the complex's abandoned apartments, pipes broke, water poured into the rooms and icy temperatures prompted the liquid to immediately freeze into swathes of ice.
Some of the entrances were completely blocked by these cascades of frozen snow.
"I have never seen something like that anywhere," says Passer.
Extreme conditions
It was -38 F (-38 C) while Passer was wandering these villages. Taking photographs in such cold conditions has its challenges. Passer says her battery was more prone to dying, so she had to hold her camera under her coat to keep it warm.
"Your hands get cold. You can't move your fingers properly. You have to wear gloves."
Alongside the photos taken at close range -- such as a particularly remarkable shot of a frozen chandelier -- Passer also took pictures with her drone to get a bird's-eye perspective.
Some of the aerial shots were taken in the village of Cementozavodsky, which Passer describes as almost completely empty.
"In this village there is only one apartment building which is not abandoned," she says. "There are no shops, banks, literally nothing."
Passer spoke to some of the people living in the area about what it's like.
"It feels like they are upset that the place where they were born, where they grew up, is dying," she says.
"People who want to move from the region can't sell their apartments and have to leave them."
Some residents hope the Russian government will help them relocate, says Passer, but they tend to be offered homes in Vorkuta, rather than elsewhere in Russia.
She spoke to some people living in the apartment block in Severny that is partly abandoned.
"There is just one family and they are going to be relocated to another apartment in another building soon," she says. The inhabitants told Passer that the broken pipes that brought the ice inside aren't going to be fixed anytime soon, because the block will soon be completely deserted.
Passer's photographs have spread across the world over the past few days, their stark beauty capturing viewer's imaginations, and shining a light on life in this Arctic corner.
Passer wants viewers to consider the context of the pictures as well as their beauty.
"When I explored this iced building, I had two thoughts: 'Oh my gosh! It's disastrous' and 'Oh my gosh, it's breathtaking!'" says Passer.
"I would like people who see the pictures to feel the same way. "
RELATED: 6 books that will leave you haunted, from Russian spies to homicides
6 books that will leave you haunted, from Russian spies to homicides
‘The Sentinel’
Some things don’t change, even when they do. That’s precisely the case with “The Sentinel” (Delacorte), latest in the Jack Reacher series that has become an iconic staple of pop culture. The difference is Lee Child has now been joined by his brother Andrew as co-author. The proof of that partnership, as they say, lies in the pudding. Or, in any Reacher novel, the body count, which is typically high in the tandem’s debut effort.
Reacher books never disappoint, as our ageless, neo-Western hero once again goes toe-to-toe with all who have the misfortune of crossing him. His character has attained true mythic status, and “The Sentinel” is a butt-kicking, take-no-prisoners thriller that satisfies on every page.
‘Kill Chain’
Dominic Martell’s long-awaited “Kill Chain” (Dunn Books) is one of those thrillers that sticks with you long after the last page is flipped. That’s because Pascual Rose, who we last saw 20 years ago in a three-book series beginning with “Lying, Crying, Dying,” is finally back, only this time it’s personal. A former terrorist until he saw the light, he finds himself flirting with darkness again, only for the (questionably) “good” guys. Living outside Barcelona now, Rose is lured back into his old world, this time populated by a host of German and Russian bad guys with a plot to destabilize the world order. This is a thinking man’s thriller, full of internecine conflicts, power struggles and conflicting agendas, but as smart as it is fast. Not to be missed for fans of serious-minded espionage thrillers.
‘Confessions on the 7:45’
I’m going to bet that Lisa Unger is a big Hitchcock fan, particularly of “Strangers on a Train.” That’s because her latest scintillating, sizzling success, “Confessions on the 7:45” (Park Row), opens with a pair of, well, strangers striking up a conversation while their commuter train is struck on the track.
Almost the moment she and her train mate part company, Selena Murphy’s life begins to systematically deconstruct, starting with the disappearance of the family nanny, who she was convinced had been having an affair with her husband.
This is psychological thriller writing of the highest order. A taut, timely and terrific tale that is exactly the kind of movie Hitchcock would be making today if he was still alive.
‘The Last Agent’
In Robert Dugoni’s latest, the stellar protagonist Charles Jenkins comes back to the page to spectacular results.
Dugoni, more known for his psychological and legal thrillers, seems to be channeling his inner Daniel Silva, or even John le Carre, here. That’s because the latest escapade in which Jenkins becomes embroiled sees him returning to his former spy haunts in Russia, literally going back into the cold as opposed to coming in from it. Espionage writing doesn’t get any better than Dugoni’s shrewd take on the state of U.S.-Russian relations, as he proves to be not just a (writing) jack of all trades, but a master of all of them.
‘The Silent Conspiracy’
Journalistic power couple Jack Logan and Taylor Parks make a triumphant return to the page in L.C. Shaw’s riveting and relentless “The Silent Conspiracy” (Harper), and they’ve really got their work cut out for them this time.
Indeed, after tackling a potential brainwashing conspiracy in “The Network,” they’re facing a rash of murder-suicides that seems to suggest someone is turning ordinary people into homicidal maniacs. Jack and Taylor have come to realize that this latest conspiracy bears a direct connection to a major case Taylor, an attorney, is bringing before the Supreme Court involving a nefarious insurance company.
“The Silent Conspiracy” is just credible enough to be dizzying in its message and prescience. A truly scary tale, the implications of which are even direr because it’s grounded in reality.
‘Assault by Fire’
H. Ripley Rawlings’s “Assault by Fire” (Pinnacle) has a been-there done-that feel to it, but in this case that’s a positive since this latest military thriller to feature Tyce Asher makes for a stellar addition to the subgenre.
This time out, Asher finds himself living out one of the world’s greatest nightmares: a Russian invasion of the Homeland.
“Assault by Fire” reads like “Red Dawn” for a more seasoned and jaded audience; it’s powerful thriller writing that’s not afraid to flex its muscles. Fans of mind snacks by the likes of Tom Clancy and Web Griffin, not to mention more modern masters of the genre like Brad Taylor, Mark Greaney and Jack Carr, will find plenty to chomp on here.
