Anaiyyuun: Prayer for the Whale Filming Locations

'Hide something for me. Look at the food, the whales. Look at the sea, the whalers. A blessing for them. Take that and hide it in your heart." -Iñupiaq elder Foster Simmonds Every spring for the last 2000 years, the Iñupiaq people have stood on the tuvaq, the edge of the shorefast ice, waiting for the annual migration of bowhead whales. Whaling is a cultural cornerstone of Iñupiaq identity and a primary source of food on the Arctic Slope. The harvest of the bowhead whale is considered a gift. Kanisan Ningeok says of whaling, "We sit on the ice and hope the whale gives itself." For three years, I have been documenting life in the village of Utqiagviq, Alaska. There I lived on the sea ice alongside a traditional Iñupiaq whaling crew. I listened to their stories, those from yesterday blending into those from a hundred years ago. Sometimes, after long periods of silent watching, Iñupiat spoke of whales and family as if they were one and the same. During those moments, I felt that implicit connection between human and nature. This project began as a set of impressions of the stark world of the sea ice. My crew stood on the ice and waited for the return of the whales. Standing with them, protected from the wind inside my fur-linked parka, I felt a timeless gratitude. I understood then that the patient act of waiting was itself a prayer for the whale.