Greenland Blog

The first photographs I saw of Greenland were in black and white. At a glance, I was enchanted by the ruggedness of the topography, the authenticity of the Inuit culture; a landscape so surreal that it seemed like something out of a dream. The photographers were heroes in my eyes, modern icons who merged artistic pursuit with real polar exploration. A few years ago, I was fortunate to meet such a hero, photographer Ragnar Axelsson, whose book Last Days of the Arctic had been a favorite for years. When I looked at those pictures, those timeless black-and-white darkroom prints, I felt something profound – something like a sense of being alive. “Go to Greenland,” he told me. “There, above all else. It’s still raw, there.” A brilliant autumn sunrise in Gåsefjord, East Greenland. Leaving behind the tourist bustle of Iceland, I was astounded when Greenland poured out below the airplane in the most vibrant colors of any landscape I had seen. We descended over jagged peaks like animal teeth, sweeping glaciers fracturing into a crisp blue sea. Mineral deposits painted the hills red and magenta, the tundra blooming in fall foliage. What’s more – there was no one there. A vast wilderness, 44,087 km of largely uninhabited coastline, awaited exploration. During an expedition to Greenland with Quark Expeditions, the Ocean Nova navigates the glacial ice of Alpefjord, East Greenland. In September, the Greenlandic tundra transforms into brilliant fall foliage, like this bearberry and willow. Quark Expeditions passengers explore the valleys of Dream Bay, East Greenland. […]