Last Updated on 08/09/2024 by Nilofer Khan
“The world needs human photographers to tell stories,” says Hasselblad Master 2023 winner Tiina Itkonen, whose series, Home, won the architecture category of the prestigious award. Itkonen has been photographing for the past 30 years, witnessing numerous trends and transformations in the medium. However, the latest breakthrough of artificially created ‘pictures’ doesn’t bother her, despite a considerable portion of the community deeming it an encroachment on their livelihoods. “As a documentary photographer, I don’t feel threatened that AI will replace us. I think an AI image should be considered digital art, not a photograph,” she explains. While AI seems like an omnipotent threat, Tiina Itkonen’s surreal photographs highlight yet another prolonged catastrophe that requires urgent intervention: irreversible climate change.
All images by Tiina Itkonen. Used with permission. For more, please check out her website and Instagram @tiinaitkonen.
At The Precipice
The year was 1995, when Tiina Itkonen, an alumnus of the Turku Arts Academy and Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland, visited Greenland, a country to which she would dedicate several decades of her life. “I fell in love with nature, culture, and people,” she says.
In the first seven years, she devoted herself to creating photographs of the Inughuit communities in Thule. However, with time and the onset of the climate crisis, Itkonen turned her sympathetic lens towards capturing the magnificence of the Inuit hunter community, highlighting the ominous phenomenon waiting to disrupt their enthralling culture.
Part of the project Piniartoq (Hunter), Home was created in collaboration with polar scientist Kristin Laidre and science writer Susan McGrath. But beneath her colorful and tranquil photographs of Inuit houses lie a harrowing reality of a changing ecosystem. In Greenland, sea ice is disappearing at about ten percent a decade. The Arctic has been predicted to become mostly ice-free in summer by mid-century. The age-old culture of on-ice subsistence hunting is already feeling disrupted. Hunters encounter more open water now, as they cannot access the areas with sea ice. As a result, hunting on the ice has become more dangerous, and this unique way of life may be lost forever. “It was one hunter who told me that earlier, the sea was covered by ice for nine months, and it was two meters thick. But now there is only sea ice for a few months and only 30 centimeters, or even thinner,” Itkonen states.
Human Connections in The Wild
As with any documentary project, Itkonen familiarised herself with the region over numerous visits, bringing in new experiences each time. “When working on the projects, I have traveled more than 1,500 kilometers along the west coast of Greenland by dogsled, fishing scow, sailboat, helicopter, small plane, cargo ship, and oil tanker,” she states.
During the adventurous travel (which reminds me of The Golden Compass in some ways), Itkonen came across the houses, which almost seemed welcoming despite the extreme weather. “These wooden houses, painted with different colors, looked so pretty in a snowy landscape,” she tells us. While Hasselblad judges were impressed by the sense of liberty these humble abodes offer compared to the bareness of nature, we must also applaud the Itkonen’s gaze, which noticed even the slightest changes of light.
Often lacking any human figure in the frame, Home reveals so much about its inhabitants. The clothes hanging on a pegline to an ajar door or the ladder on the rooftop are a testament to the human spirit. Even the clutter of the simple houses against the sheer white sheet of snow is both inspiring and frightening. “I have made friends with local people and feel at home there. Those who were children in the 90s are now grown-ups and have families,” Itkonen states when asked how she noticed it all. “I can say that about 80% of my time is spent with people, and maybe 20% of the time I photograph. Knowing the people who helped me create this series,” she says.
Change is The Only Constant
Since Tiina Itkonen has been photographing the expansive landscape for the last 30 years, one must also delve into the photographer’s treasure trove, which has evolved drastically. “I started with Nikon FM2, which I got from the photography school,” she explains. “Then, I bought analog Hasselblad, which was perfect for portraits. For the landscapes, I used a panoramic camera, a Fuji GX617. The panoramic form enables me to frame a wide Greenlandic landscape into a single image,” she adds. The only constant has been the Manfrotto tripod. Currently, Itkonen uses a Nikon Z7 and, sometimes, a drone, but she can’t wait to get her hands on the Hasselblad X2D.
Like a more straightforward setup, Itkonen also keeps editing to a minimum. “I do some basic editing; I check white balance, contrast, brightness, and crop and straighten the image.”
Gear aside, one often wonders what challenges one could face when they visit one of the coldest places on Earth. “My hands and feet are freezing easily,” she states. But she quickly adds that the weather makes transportation particularly a problem. “Every time I travel in Greenland, at least one flight is canceled because of the weather. I often hear ‘immaqa agaqu’ or ‘maybe tomorrow’,” she states.
Itkonen’s series takes a much-unhurried approach to the lives of the Inuit, allowing us to savor every silence, color, and shifting light, one photograph at a time. But as we do so, we should heed a harsh truth: if we don’t conserve Tiina Itkonen’s sublime landscapes and the timeless majesty of Inuit culture, they will become relics of a bygone era.
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.