Paris’ Denmark House is showing Henrik Saxgren’s stunning documentary photographs of Arctic Greenland (to May 17, 2018). Saxgren’s photos depict the life of sea hunters in the northernmost Greenlandic settlements. Documenting life in the harsh arctic wilderness he accompanied them on hunts on sea ice and travelled hundreds of miles by dog sled. The result is his latest book “Ultima Thule” and the exhibition at the Danish cultural center.
Saxgren readily acknowledges he is not the first Danish artist or photographer to be concerned about Greenland. For example Danish artist, Olafur Eliasson created “Ice Watch” carving a massive block of ice from Greenland and installed the pieces at the Place du Pantheon in Paris for the UN climate summit. But Saxgren’s photos tell another chapter of the story adding to the narrative about changes taking place with global warming in the Arctic. “They risk being the last record” says Saxgren “of the life lived by what may be the last generation of hunters on the sea ice of Thule, hunting and catching the great sea mammals, like their ancestors before them—several hundred, even a thousand years ago.”
Saxgren’s other documentary projects include “Solomon’s House: the Lost Children of Nicaragua” and “War and Love, Immigration of the North.”
Henrik Saxgren, “Ultima Thule” to May 17, 2018 at Maison du Danemark, 142 avenue des Champs-Elysées, 75008 Paris