The 'Disappearing' Beauty of Greenland

Greenland is hot! Quite literally. Summer this year has been one of the hottest summers in Greenland. The icecap is melting faster than ever before. The current melt was only predicted to happen in 2070. And with 50 years ‘ahead of schedule’ it will only get worse. But Greenland is also ‘hot’ in another way. This summer alone, 40 cruise ships visited the relatively small town Ilulissat on the west coast of Greenland. When I was there for 12 days this summer, I saw 6 different ships come and go. One of them had 13 decks, 3500 passengers and 900 crew on it. To put this into perspective: Ilulissat itself has only a population of close to 5000. This cruise ship almost doubles the town’s population. Tourism is booming. And Greenland is ‘hot’ in the media too, with Trump recently wanting to buy the country!

The town Ilulissat, where I was staying a little less than 2 weeks, is still very laidback. No big airport, no big car rental companies, chill people and a small harbour. But this might change soon. When I saw the amount of people visiting this year I can’t imagine what this town will look like in 10 to 15 years. I was really surprised how many people were visiting Greenland when I was there. I am from the Netherlands myself and none of my friends and family ever visited the country. It’s not really known as a popular tourist hotspot, but when I was actually there I quickly discovered I was wrong. And really, it’s no surprise that people want to see it. Because… it’s beautiful! The amazing ice you see in the sea is an unreal site. With the midnight sun colours hitting the ice and a beautiful color palette in the sky, it’s like being in a dreamworld. Sailing through the ice fjord is magical. And that’s what we did. Every day.

I was in Greenland guiding 2 photo tours. During these tours we sail our 2 little red sailboats (one of them being a record holder of the first circumnavigation around the arctic between the giant pieces of ice. Using our red sailboats we show the scale of the massive shapes and peaks of the icebergs. For me as a photography guide, this location is always amazing. It’s just never the same. It’s challenging which keeps it interesting. Icebergs can be massive and they are floating in the sea. They always move so everyday there can be new icebergs to explore. Basically, I can explore new landscapes at the same location every day! We always try to find icebergs with interesting shapes, arches and holes in them. The guests love it, fly their drone through it while using our little boats as models. With our red sailboats we add a new dimension to the beauty of Greenland.

With this project I aim to show the beauty of the country in my own way. It’s like creating art out of nature. We position and navigate our sailboats through the ice, sometimes taking hours to find a good composition or iceberg. The results are photos that seem unreal. By using clever placement of the sailboats, we create scale, emotion and a certain atmosphere. The boats are our subject, and the ice landscapes combined with the weather conditions are our canvas. We use everything ranging from wide angle lenses, midrange, to super telephoto lenses and drones.

Our captains are extremely skilled and are able to position the boats exactly where we want them. As a photographer, This is something I love to do. People who know my work know that I love to plan ‘extreme’ shots. I have photographed moon shots, volcanos, and milky ways and even a solar eclipse, all perfectly lined up with a subject: sometimes a model and at other times a building or structure. Planning this kind of shots motivates me to the extreme, therefore using these little sailboats to create magical photos is something that I can put all of my passion into.

We planned a wide variety of photos ranging from photos where our boats where behind arches, against a moonrise, against huge walls of ice, around interesting icebergs that you can see through the water, etc. The compositions and possibilities are endless. It’s really a playground for a photographer like me. Our little red boats are of course very tempting to photograph I also tried to capture the beauty of the ice pieces and textures in a closer way. Showing the raw beauty of what nature can do to this ice is another prime goal of this project. Playing with shapes, textures and reflections in the water, sometimes using a seagull or a whale for the scale, shows the real raw beauty of this place. A place that might not exist anymore after a few 100 years, or maybe even much sooner. Maybe even in my lifetime?

With global warming really kicking in over the last year with record temperatures everywhere (record after record broke in my hometown Amsterdam this year, and last year we had extreme draughts) it’s really something that we should be aware of even more. This is not only about Greenland. This is about our whole planet.

Please enjoy these series shot in just 12 days on the waters of Disko Bay, Greenland.

Our 2 red sail boats posing around a cool iceberg (pun intended) . I spotted this one from very far away with binoculars. It took us 1.5 hours to sail to it and we were not disappointed.

When the moon rises everything just looks magical. We planned a bunch of photos with the moon on tops of icebergs or sometimes in between. We used the app Photopills to check where exactly the moon would rise. Photographing the moon from a boat hand held is extremely tricky, especially when we have to position the other boat as well. Everything is moving and we had to use a higher ISO and fast shutter speed to get the shots. But the results were spectacular. This was shot at 400mm! To get the moon big we had to get very far away from the icebergs and the other boat. There are some more moonshots later in this series.

Greenland, which is part of Denmark copies the architectural style with their colourful houses.

An iceberg shaped like a dog? Or a woman and a man? You can see all kinds of shapes in some of these icebergs. And they look different every day.

We are sailing everyday and the light can last for hours during the midnight sun with sometimes spectacular sunsets and sunrises as a result.

Our little red sail boats are always a great object to photograph, especially during ‘bad’ weather. The red sails really pop out with dark skies.

I really love shooting abstract photos from the boat. Different shapes and icebergs come and go. By using my 100-400 I love to play with shapes and lines on the sea.

Photographing from a boat is completely different than ‘traditional’ landscape photography. Even on sea, you can use your wide angle lenses and play with foregrounds. But you have to be fast! They come and go quickly and when a foreground presents itself, you only have a second to capture it before it’s gone.

Some icebergs have holes or aches in them. This one had a tunnel which was hit by sunlight from the inside.

The ice fjord at ilulissat. You can hike here easily from town and it has an impressive view over all the ice that is coming in from the cap.

A humpback whale making a dive and showing it’s tail. You can see the whales here often but they do not often jump out of the water. Sometimes they show their tale but that’s about it. We had seen some jumping ones but unfortunately I didn’t capture any of them. Maybe next time.

A high key shot of a seagull sitting on the crystal clear peaks of the icebergs.

Sailing at twilight is really magical. The purple blue sky creates a dreamlike atmosphere.

Some icebergs really look like rough mountain ranges. Combined with dark skies and moody weather, they make for a Lord of the Rings atmosphere.

Ilimanaq settlement. About 2 hours of sailing from Ilulissat. Locals really live in the middle of nowhere with a prime view over the ice and the whales. It has about 80 inhabitants. Walking around there is surreal.

A spectacular midnight sunset. These sometimes last for hours!