Doeven, Ellis – Maktak And Gasoline*

€45,00

Author: Ellis Doeven
Publisher: Self Publishers United, Amsterdam
Year: 2018
ISBN: 978-90-828465-0-8

Hardback, 190 pages, 17 x 23 cm, 170×230x22 cm, English
Condition: NEW

Maktak and Gasoline documents the small community of whalers in Point Hope, an Inuit settlement in Alaska. That this is where photographer Ellis Doeven found love – she had a child with local whale-hunter Othniel Art Oomittuk jr. – is perhaps the reason why this portrait of a community in the harsh Arctic environment has become so full of love and warmth – without the slightest sentimentality. Landscapes scintillating in the Arctic light are interspersed with scenes of the hard life: whale parts with the steaming gunge that is released during the butchering and is called maktak; carcases, but children playing too. The feeling for colour – much metallic blue – is evident throughout. Designer Sybren Kuiper – nom de guerre -SYB- – has had fun both inside and outside this book: photo spreads turn out to include smaller pages which, when turned, reveal the text. When closed, double fold-outs show us the village in the open air; when they are opened we see interiors and their occupiers. The warmth of the houses, the intimacy of the interior scenes and the contrast with the glittering cold outdoors is thus presented very intuitively and pregnantly. The printing is as crispy fresh as a cloudless subzero sky. Wamth and cold, intimacy and inhospitality are the counterpoints of a book that’s as fresh and clear as an ice cube.

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