Terje Isungset invited me to document a special chapter of his Ice Music: to record Nunavut’s fresh & salt water (sea) ice. Nunavut’s capital, Iqaluit ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ (a place of many fish) was our base, and we arrived during the coldest part of winter with temperatures dropping as low as -56ºc while we were there.
A surprisingly high percentage of the capital’s 6,000 residents are not indigenous Inuit people but ‘Qallunaaq’: non-Inuit or white person. The largest employer is the government, which attracts Qallunaaq willing to exchange ‘main street’ daily life for solitude, spareness and a few settle indefinitely. All, including myself, fell in love with the place.