This time next week I’m heading back to the Northwest Territories of Canada to continue shooting a long-term project I’m working on in the area. I’ll be spending most of my time based in Yellowknife, but I’ll also be visiting Hay River, a 40 minute flight South from YK in a DC3 aeroplane that’s older than my dad. I’ll also be heading north, hopefully on a more modern plane, to the town of Inuvik, which is situated on the frozen Arctic Sea coast.
For this second trip I’ll be travelling alone. Last autumn I worked with writer, Trevor Gibbs, but he has very selfishly organised to do some charity work in Nepal, so can’t come…but seriously, it would have been great to have Trevor with me, apart from being a very good friend, he can also organise the unorganisable. Trevor is also very good with money, he had the project budget planned down to the last cent on the last day. I’m not good with money and will probably end-up having to sell a kidney to fund my return flights home.
I’m still not quite sure where my Yellowknife project is going, or what it actually is? I returned last September, after a three-week visit, with 120 rolls of film, that’s about 1200 separate images, but they are separate images, there’s absolutely no narrative to them, I can’t find 20 individual shots that I could put together to make a remotely interesting story! This is not to say that the images are unusable, far from it, a lot of them are selling very well, individually, and neither am I suggesting that Yellowknife is uninteresting. Far from it. However, last September I did what I said I wasn’t going to do, I fell into the trap of photographing the obvious, the cliché. I stayed well within my comfort zone. So, I’m going back to get uncomfortable.
Something I learned from my last trip is that less is indeed more – I took too much camera equipment, too many different formats and too many different film types. During any one day I was shooting on 6x7cm, 6×4.5, 35mm and instant film, on 5 different cameras using two types of colour film and three types of black & white…I’m crap at maths, but that’s a lot of possible combinations!
So, is this my second trip to Yellowknife, or my last? Let’s find out over the next few weeks…

I know it’s not the first time you’ve posted it, but I just want to tell you I love the second to the last photo. So much grit and joy. It makes me smile.
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Alex Debogorski, ice road trucker – a truly fantastic man.
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Have a great time!
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I will certainly try, thank you!
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Have a nice trip. Is Toronto on your way to Northwest Territories?
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Yes, I have 3 free days in Toronto/Hamilton before I head north.
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Have a great time, the north is amazing. If you have any interest in archaeology of NWT and the people that do it, pm me and I will put you in touch with a YK archaeologist.
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Safe journey Phil and I look forward to the resulting images and posts
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Good luck with your project. I agree that less will be more with a project like yours. I guess you will not be distracted by which camera to choose and can just get on with concentrating on taking the picture.
Out of interest where do you sell your images?
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Thanks. Most of my work is sold through Getty Images. I have an agent in France, but I’m currently looking for another, someone a bit more reliable…
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Safe journey and am looking forwards to what you post up for us to see when you get home. Have loved the pics you posted up from your last trip 🙂
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Thank you!
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As always your shots are personal, interesting and always expressing something. When it comes to gear a 6×7 would be plenty. I cannot make my mind up if both colour and B/W would fit. I like both!
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Thank you!
I have a constant push/pull affair with B&W and colour – when I’m shooting one I want to shoot the other.
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This Picture with the smiling woman is so natural… I love it. 🙂 if you have time u pleasure I would be glad if you visit my blog. Naturalfashionbeauty.wordpress.com 🙂
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