North by Nuuk is an intimate, contemporary look at the people and the social and primal geographic landscapes of Greenland. Photographer Denis Defibaugh presents his journey from Nuuk to the settlement of Illorsuit, 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, following Rockwell Kent’s earlier footsteps and offering a fresh look at timeless Greenland. Defibaugh’s revealing documentary photographs made during 2016–17 introduce a changing country and its cultural continuity in response to Kent’s 1930s historic writings and hand-tinted lantern slide images made during his residence in Greenland. The innovative documentary project, supported by a National Science Foundation award, weaves Defibaugh’s stunning photographs through past and present daily life while linking Greenlanders with their pristine and revered landscape. Foreword by Gretel Ehrlich; essays by Axel Jeremiasson and Denis Defibaugh.

Denis Defibaugh is a Rochester, New York based photographer and professor at Rochester Institute of Technology for more than 30 years. His photographic projects include explorations of Oaxaca, Mexico’s The Day of the Dead, extinct species in Afterlifes of Natural History, and Tlacotalpan, Mexico’s Candelaria Festival.

Denis Defibaugh Greenland website

2022 exhibitions:
Plattsburgh State Art Museum February 1 – March 11, 2022
Fenimore Art Museum April 1 – December 31, 2022