Last August, after living in New York for a year, the Italian photographer Vittoria Mentasti was ready for a change. She decided to pursue the story of the Inuit people of Nunavut, the northernmost region of the Canadian Arctic. “I became interested in this story because of how completely removed it is from the consciousness of most Americans,” Mentasti said. “When I was crossing the Canadian border, a customs agent asked me what my plans were. When I said I was going to Iqaluit”—the capital of Nunavut—“he replied, laughing, ‘Oh, if you go there I don’t think anyone will care if you stay forever.’ ”
“Surrounded by tundra and the sea, there are no roads that connect the city of seven thousand people to any communities to the south,” Mentasti said of Nunavut. “The only way to get in or out is from the air.” Add to this geographic isolation a population that is “floating between its past and present,” and the result is a community plagued by high rates of alcoholism, domestic abuse, and violence. Mentasti also came to know another side of the Inuits: deep family bonds and the belief that people can be reborn through others. Mentasti told me that her pictures reflect this duality: “The tension between old values and Western civilization makes it difficult for the Inuit, especially the youth, to assert their own identity and find a place in the world. Trapped between two worlds, they are losing touch with their past while heading toward an uncertain future.”
Photographs by Vittoria Mentasti.
