I took this image at sunset on a stormy day in Canada’s northern territory of Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic. On that huge expanse of barren flatland, most houses are built on short stilts because of permafrost that makes it virtually impossible to dig deep enough to lay a proper foundation.
The vast majority of the about 31,000 people living in Nunavut are Inuit (about 26,000 or 85%). Inuit are one of the three groups of Aboriginal people who live in the Canadian Arctic (the other two groups being First Nations and Métis): Inuit speak a language called Inuktitut (Nunavut and Inuit are two Inuktitut words respectively meaning “our land” and “the people“) and some of them also speak English. If you venture out of the just 26 communities where most of Nunavut’s Inuit live in that immense territory of almost 2 million square kilometers (about 772,000 sqm), it is not unusual to see isolated cabins such as the one in the image above that Inuit use mostly as a base for hunting.
That day, when I realized that the setting sun was about to briefly peek out of the thick stormy cloud cover, I quickly set up my camera and tripod and framed that dramatic sunset using the winding dirt road created by the wheels of the there ubiquitous quads as an element of the composition leading to the cabin that I placed in one of the rule of thirds “power points” to add an element of interest to what would otherwise have been a flat, static composition.
This image brings to my mind the lyrics of the famous Beatles’ song:
The long and winding road that leads to your door
Will never disappear
I’ve seen that road before it always leads me here
Leads me to your door
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Clicks & Corks 
I love this picture… I feel like there’s a great story behind the house in the picture. Like it’s right out of a fiction novel!
Thank you, Heather: glad you liked it! 🙂
makes me want to walk down that road to see who is in that house…very nice.
Thank you, Kimberly: much appreciated 🙂
great picture, Stefano, and it is perfectly appropriate in black and white… There is so much mood in it…
Thank you, Anatoli: glad you liked the B&W rendition!
Deep and brooding, but the light at the end…nicely done.
Thank you, Oliver: I agree, the bright light enhances the contrast and creates a tension in the image. Glad you liked it.
I really do like this photo, Stefano. The B&W seems to magnify the immenseness of the landscape and absolute isolation of the cabin. This is definitely a road less traveled.
Thank you, John! I also like this image better in B&W than color. It enhances a sense of mystery and tension. Kind of an eerie place indeed.
I think your arctic photography is outstanding, Stefano. I’d like to go there myself, one day! Enjoy your weekend.
Dina
Dear Dina,
I am so glad you liked it! I love the North and the Arctic regions in particular. They are lands of extremes where life still manages to thrive. So fascinating.
I think you would love them too: I cannot recommend a trip there more!
Beautiful. My husband would love this photo. I’ll have to show it to him. He loves b&w. This one’s a stunner.
Thank you very much, Sarah: so glad you liked it!
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