"Oqattsut"
Impressions from the edge of the world
Oqaatsut, western coast of Greenland.
No roads, about 30 inhabitants, no running water in the houses. A place that escapes the categories of tourist picturesque and shows a spartan, melancholic genuineness.
This is precisely why I loved this village from the very first moment, to the point of wanting to dedicate a photographic series to it.
Oqaatsut is a kind of paradox: the Inuit way of life has remained largely unchanged, and halibut fishing is the main means of subsistence. Despite growing interest from tourism, the village does not seem to “wink” at it. The frenzy of modern life and the unfulfilled promises of Western colonialism run on a parallel lane to the reality you breathe here.
Life is hard, both for the people and for the Greenlandic dogs, chained in summer and used for sledding in winter.
This is not a reportage of the place—that is not my profession. It is rather an impression, in the most photographic sense of the term, of what this place has left inside me.
