Since then, a part of Tiina Itkonen has always remained in Greenland, the world’s second-largest ice cap after Antarctica. With her numerous trips there, the photographer has learnt the basics of the local language to communicate with the people in front of her lens. In 2004, after a third two-month trip to the country, she published her first book on the Inughuit community, a Greenland Inuit minority in the Thule region, who were nomadic for centuries but gradually settled during the 20th century. Tiina Itkonen travels the Greenland coast, crossing the hazardous icy lands on a sleigh or sailboat, or in a helicopter, plane or tanker, doing whatever she can to reach the tiny villages lost at the tip of the ice and to record the daily life, habits and customs of the Greenlandic people.
Having earned international recognition for this work, the photographer continues to pursue her projects around the Arctic, focusing a little more on how landscapes are evolving with global warming and the influence that humans are having on this place where the sky meets the ice.
BOUT DU PONT ET PLACE DE LA FERRONNERIE
Tiina Itkonen set off for Greenland in the 1990s, keen to discover the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and their deeply ingrained culture. There, she took one of her first photographs – the portrait of a woman lying down, hair grips and fish bones pinned in her long black hair, which recalled the waves of a gentle sea. That was just the beginning of a long adventure.
Since then, a part of Tiina Itkonen has always remained in Greenland, the world’s second-largest ice cap after Antarctica. With her numerous trips there, the photographer has learnt the basics of the local language to communicate with the people in front of her lens. In 2004, after a third two-month trip to the country, she published her first book on the Inughuit community, a Greenland Inuit minority in the Thule region, who were nomadic for centuries but gradually settled during the 20th century. Tiina Itkonen travels the Greenland coast, crossing the hazardous icy lands on a sleigh or sailboat, or in a helicopter, plane or tanker, doing whatever she can to reach the tiny villages lost at the tip of the ice and to record the daily life, habits and customs of the Greenlandic people.
Having earned international recognition for this work, the photographer continues to pursue her projects around the Arctic, focusing a little more on how landscapes are evolving with global warming and the influence that humans are having on this place where the sky meets the ice.
BOUT DU PONT ET PLACE DE LA FERRONNERIE