Nunavik will miss photographer whose camera loved the region

Here’s Heiko Wittenborn, who died Aug. 20, on the job three years ago at Leaf River, where, as Nunavik Tourism Association executive director Allen Gordon remembers, a young black bear “hung around us for two days.” (PHOTO BY ALLEN GORDON)

This photo of a starving polar bear, which Heiko Wittenborn took in 2007, unnerved the nature-loving photographer. (PHOTO BY HEIKO WITTENBORN)

This Heiko Wittenborn photograph shows caribou during their autumn mating period. (PHOTO BY HEIKO WITTENBORN, COURTESY OF LES PUBLICATIONS DU QUÉBEC)

(updated Aug. 26, 11:45 a.m.)

Every spring Allen Gordon, the executive director of the Nunavik Tourism Association, used to tease photographer Heiko Wittenborn about the “annual migration of photographers” when he saw Wittenborn at his door.

Gordon, like many of Wittenborn’s many friends in Nunavik, was shocked to learn of Wittenborn’s sudden death on Aug. 20.

Wittenborn, 59, died of a heart attack at his home.

Gordon said Wittenborn had been looking forward to a trip up the George River to look at — and take photos of — polar bears there that are now competing with black bears for Arctic char.

In September, 2007, Gordon and Wittenborn were travelling by jet boat on the Caniapiscau River to Manitou Gorge, in search of new fishing spots for the Nunavik Tourism Association, when they spotted a polar bear on the shore.

The polar bear was an unexpected sight 160 kilometres inland from Ungava Bay, an area usually known as black bear country.

The polar bear was visibly malnourished, with its fur hanging from its bones.

Wittenborn had taken thousands of photos of Nunavik wildlife over the years, but at the time he told Nunatsiaq News that he couldn’t shake the haunting image of the polar bear out of his head when he went to sleep at night.

“It’s so sad to see a polar bear in this condition,” Wittenborn said.

Wittenborn was eager to return back to that area to take a photo showing polar bears’ resiliency and ability to survive in a warmer climate, Gordon said.

That was typical of Wittenborn’s enthusiasm for nature — and in particular for Nunavik, where he took as many as 500,000 photos over more than 20 years.

Wittenborn’s photos comprise most of the photos now used by the Nunavik Tourism Association, outfitters and hotels to promote Nunavik.

“He’s gone but he’s going to be with us for a long time yet,” Gordon said.

Every year, Wittenborn assembled the popular bilingual tourism brochure on Nunavik, which is given out free-of-charge in the region and at Quebec tourism offices.

Wittenborn also recently published a book Nunavik-Québec arctique, a Government of Quebec publication, is a large, beautifully illustrated book, with more than 100 pages of photos

“I would like to thank the people of Nunavik for the hospitality and generosity they showed me as they welcomed me to an unfamiliar region. It would have been impossible for me to discover and photograph the beauty of their native land without this help and support. Many of those people, whom I met over the years, have become close friends. Every time I visit Nunavik, I meet these old friends again and, then, I feel as if I also belong to this territory. Sometimes it’s as if I’m returning to a very familiar place because I have gone back so many times,” writes Wittenborn in his personal introduction to that book.

Easygoing Wittenborn had the special knack of getting along with everyone — and could rough it out on the land with Nunavimmiut, Gordon said.

Wittenborn’s last trip in Nunavik took place this summer, when he travelled to Akpatok Island, with Johnny Adams, who had hired Wittenborn to take photos to promote his cruise catamaran.

Wittenborn also participated in a media trip that the Nunavik Tourism Association organized this past spring to Puvirnituq, to cover the Snow Festival, the start of the Ivakkak
dog sled race and activities organized by the the Nunavik Arctic Survival Training Center.

Wittenborn’s many friends and family members gathered Aug. 25 and 26 in Montreal to say their good-byes.

A memorial service for Wittenborn took place Aug. 26 at the Jardins Urgel Bourgie, at 3955 Côte-de-Liesse in Ville-St-Laurent.