With strikingly similar images and aesthetic impulses, we asked what Robert Kautuk, from Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), NU, and Eldred Allen, from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, NL, thought of each other’s photographs in this five-part series. 

Robert Kautuk Different Ice Layers (2019) Digital photograph COURTESY THE ARTIST

This image reminds me of a grayscale Hillshade that I have used in GIS mapping, which depicts the contours of the land. It’s a very interesting image that contains many diagonals and balance that allows the eye to flow through the entire image. The shapes of ice are always very unique, and it reminds me of images I have captured with my drone of the spring ice here in Nunatsiavut. It’s an image that shows danger—being at the floe edge—but also great knowledge and skill to safely navigate and kill animals by the hunters depicted here. 

— Eldred Allen 

Eldred Allen The Breakaway (2019) Digital photograph COURTESY THE ARTIST

The freeze up begins. This photo speaks of fall to me, when ice begins to form along the coastal waters. This image reminds me of when you are boating at this time of year, which can be calming with the ice crunching as you go through it. And the ocean is so smooth as the forming ice lessens the swells. This photo captures the different layers of ice really well, giving it a nice pattern. I love shooting in the winter myself, but it can be a challenge to fly the drone in the cold as things start freezing, and the battery life gets shorter. You really have to plan your shots ahead of time. 

— Robert Kautuk 

This Feature was originally published in the Summer 2020 Issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly.

Read the rest of the series:

How a River Forms from a Drone’s Point of View

What Marine Mammals Look Like From Above