Last Updated on 11/22/2017 by Chris Gampat
All images by Julien Fumard. Used with Creative Commons permission.
In a simple but also charming photo diary, French photographer Julien Fumard shows us what it’s like to spend winter in the northernmost region of Finland, warmed by the company of some adorable sled dogs. If “must love dogs” is something you live by, the photos are definitely worth your while.
When we speak of sled dogs, we often think of them in highly energetic packs speeding their way across snowy landscapes. However, not a lot of us see them in more relaxed environments. Luckily for Julien, he was able to travel to the municipality of Inari in Lapland, the largest and northernmost region of Finland, in 2012. He went home with a collection of part documentary, part travel photos he called A Dog Life.
After some poking around Julien’s blog for his Lapland travel diaries, I learned that he spent three winter months hosted by a local Sami family with a husky farm. All that was asked of him was to help with cooking and other household stuff, taking care of the animals, entertaining tourists, and so on. On top of cool activities like learning how to ride fjord horses — which he interestingly described as “the true viking horses that do not fear the cold” — Julien’s days were mostly spent in the company of adorable pups and sled dogs in training. The fact that nine puppies were born before he arrived seemed like a good omen to me.
Finland, to most people, conjures images of beautiful landscapes blanketed in snow, and Lapland definitely contributes some postcard images of that. Julien’s snapshots are also never short of these images, but I guess the fact that they have personal travel stories — and adorable huskies, of course — embedded in them make them all the more heartwarming.
Check out Julien’s Finland travel diaries on his blog to learn more about his story, as well as his website and Behance portfolio for his other works.