Photo contest seeks scenes from Kuujjuaraapik

A winter scene taken by Joanne Novalinga won the jury’s first prize in Umiujaq’s 2010 photo contest.

If you live in the Nunavik community of Kuujjuaraapik, get out your camera and start taking photos: you have less then two weeks left to submit a photo to Nunavik’s second landscape photography contest.

People in this southern Hudson Bay community have until Aug. 12 to take a shot of their favourite local scenery.

Photos can be recent or even taken several years old, said contest coordinator Fabienne Joliet — as long as they’re taken in or around Kuujjuaraapik or or the nearby Cree community of Whapmagoostui.

This means the photos should be taken in an area bordered by the Nastapoka river to the north, by Clearwater Lake to the east, the Little Whale River to the south and the Umiujaq Islands to the west.

For Joliet, a landscape is “any place is a place where you’re happy to be, where you feel good because this place is pleasant, and you can do what you like to do.”

Joliet, who studies horticulture and landscape in Angers, France, launched a similar photo contest last year in Umiujaq to see what places are important to people there.

The photo contest is sponsored by the France’s polar institute, as part of a research project on aboriginal perceptions of landscapes.

After Aug. 12, a jury including Joliet, Avataq photographer Robert Frechette, and Kangiqsujuaq photographer Yaaka Jaaka will choose three winning photos submitted.

The winners will receive cash prizes.

And on Aug. 17, a public jury made up of community members will choose their favourite, which comes with an award of $500.

Winning images are destined for a photo album that Joliet hopes to reproduce for the community, including text explaining each image.

The album could be used as a tool for tourism or in local classrooms, she said.

Joliet hopes to receive photos from people of all ages.

Joliet found many local photographers who submitted photos last year focussed on the changing elements of the land, such as sunsets and ice, snow and waterfalls.

You can send your photos to Joliet by email or give them to her in person between Aug. 4 and 12, when Joliet will be visiting Kuujjuaraapik.

Questions? You can email Joliet at fabienne.joliet@agrocampus-ouest.fr.