The town of Ilulissat, Greenland, sits 220 miles north of the Arctic Circle, and its name may give away one of the area's most incredible sights. “Ilulissat” is the Kalaallisut word for icebergs, and the area has a front-row seat to the yearly journey of these ice mammoths at the nearby Ilulissat Icefjord. This area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, and now Danish photographer Jonas Høholt lets the world see it through a hypnotic time-lapse depicting the transit of the icebergs under the sweeping arctic skies.
The icebergs that populate this area have been split and shed by the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier one by one for thousands of years. “The sheer magnitude of the Ilulissat Icefjord, its icebergs, and their journey planted a deep fascination in me,” Høholt writes on YouTube. “Along with the distant sounds of icebergs cracking, squeaking, and rumbling, the feeling of being a mere speck in a world largely ruled by nature got its grip in me.”
Høholt shot this time-lapse over a four-month period during which he lived in Ilulissat. “Aside from handling my main job in the town, I grabbed the opportunity to depict my impressions of the seasonal changes from summer to winter around the iconic icefjord just south of Ilulissat,” he explained. “I naturally found purpose in using my time-lapse skills, that I've gradually developed over more than a decade, to capture footage for a personal project depicting the arctic autumn seasonal change along with my personal four month journey in the area.”
His footage captures the seasons changing from summer to the first days of winter. The icebergs parade first under sunny skies and in front of Greenland's colorful villages before moving alongside the aurora borealis at night. Impressively, as the cold kicks in, icebergs can reach up to 15 stories tall out of the water.
To Høholt, this project creations realizations about the constant evolution of both the environment and the human spirit. “The ever-changing icebergs remind me of the impermanence of life,” he writes. “It spurs me to appreciate each moment.”
To explore Høholt's work further, visit his YouTube channel.
Jonas Høholt: Instagram | YouTube
h/t: [PetaPixel]
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