PURE MAGIC

With summer winding down in northern Finland, two men begin gathering pine tar wood well before dark. The dried, weathered pieces of aged stumps will soon be ignited, the flames casting a flickering light on an ancient method of fishing whose practitioners may have dwindled to just these two.

Spearfishing by firelight is not a not particularly effective technique — it’s far easier to flick on the beam of a headlamp than to build and maintain a fire on a metal grill hanging over the water, connected to the bow of a boat. But that misses the point.

Henri Turtinen and Esa Saarela continue