I’ve enjoyed digging back into my early digital archives to again see photographs I made on two trips to Iqaluit, Nunavut in the late fall of 2002 and 2003. The work was fascinating teaching folks to use thermal imaging on the very specialized types of building construction found there; they must be not only stand up to long, bitterly cold winters, insane wind, and very destructive moisture, but also cannot melt the permafrost they are built on.

It was also life altering to delve more deeply into the culture of the First People. Though I’d read a great deal, to be there in the reality of it made me realize how much more there was to see and learn and marvel at. We came across several inuksuks on our walks, important still-used symbols of that culture; these have been used for time immemorial as way finders or to help herd animals on drives. The terrain was utterly foreign to me. My mind could not recognize enough landmarks—no trees larger than a foot high—to allow me to venture more than a few miles onto the tundra. The vegetation was a riot of color and texture, an ancient tangle that was impossible to walk through easily.

But my mind was absolutely blown wandering around the surrounding tundra, covered in glacial erratics which were themselves covered with brilliantly colored lichens.

I spent much of my time looking down at what was right in front of me, both to keep my footing and to see the unbelievable patterns that were everywhere.

And then I’d look up across the immense—literally—tundra landscape, my mouth agape in wonder.

Returning again and again to the impossible colors and textures at my feet.

And the sand and ice along the rivers, my god, it was all just mind boggling.

At the end of my all too short times in Nunavut, I could see much more clearly how the culture of the First People was so rich and steeped in what we call mysticism—for them it was “simply” daily life.

12 Mar This entry was published on March 12, 2023 at 5:08 pm. It’s filed under Ecosystem, Fall colors, John Snell, John Snell Photographer, Patterns, Photograph, Rocks, Snow, Stone and rocks, Winter, www.johnsnell.photography and tagged glacial erratics, inuksuk, Iqaluit, Nunavut, tundra. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.