LV Sketchbook Page 004

The subject of this 'sister image' to yesterday's post is whaling. The first Antarctic whaling station was established in 1904 at South Georgia island. By the mid-20th century, several of the eight whale species that populate Antarctic waters had been hunted to the edge of extinction. They're now gradually recovering thanks to international regulation of commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean, though their numbers aren't nearly that of a hundred years ago. At the other end of the world by contrast, whale hunting has been central to the Inupiat people's subsistence for over a millennium. I'm currently marveling over thewhalehunt.org, a unique photo-documentary of an Inupiat whale hunt in Barrow, Alaska. Its extraordinary approach to storytelling and brilliant interface was created by Jonathan Harris, with stunning photography by Andrew Moore. Not to be missed.