I am very grateful and happy that I had the opportunity to be a Docker at Docking Station. My new story idea developed in three weeks from a vague idea into a full-blown project. All the incredibly helpful and inspirational expert meetings helped to shape the project idea. Being a Docker at Docking Station not only helped to form my story, but also helped to find out what kind of photographer I want to be. I left Amsterdam with a great project, a new inspiring network, and tons of motivation through a lot of encouragement.
- Lukas Kreibig
Docker #30
Lukas Kreibig
Heart of a Seal
Nature dictates the rhythm of life in the mountain village of Uummannaq, an island off the coast of Greenland. Living off the grid, the Inuit inhabitants have always relied on fishing and hunting. But now that the climate is changing, their traditional lifestyle is under threat.
Photographer Lukas Kreibig was born in Southern Germany, close to the Swiss mountains. He was struck by the beauty of Uummannaq’s nature and by the way the people live in harmony with their surroundings. It’s a life unhampered and free, but at the same time, totally isolated and extremely restricted. He went there to photograph the children in the world’s northernmost children’s home that is based there, but found that the well-maintained facility and international people could not explain why the children had been sent to the home in the first place—for example, because of the alcoholism and high suicide rates within the community. Kreibig decided to leave the home and follow the villagers in their daily work. What have the children left behind? And will the children ever be able to reconnect with their roots?
Who? Lukas Kreibig
From: Germany
Docking January 23 - February 13 2019
Working on: The Heart of a Seal
About: The remote village of Uummannaq in Greenland is built upon strong traditions that have been born out of harsh surroundings—but now the climate is changing.
Lukas Kreibig (1987) was born in Southern Germany and studied photojournalism and documentary photography at the University of Hanover. His work has appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, National Geographic and Stern, among other publications. In 2017, Kreibig completed the International Photojournalism program at the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Aarhus, Denmark, and decided to narrow his focus to primarily long-term stories, in an effort to dig deeper than normal stories do. His latest project, Heart of a Seal, won the Magenta Flash Forward Award in the Climate Category and was a finalist for the World Report Award and the VGH Photo Prize. His work has been exhibited at the International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, at the Triennale of Photography Hamburg and during the Düsseldorf Photo Weekend, among others.
ambassador
Karen Fromm
Professor in Media, Information and Design, Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at Hochschule Hannover
Lukas is a talented young storyteller focusing on a socially committed documentary practice and through this, searching for new forms of narrative.
When I got to know Lukas I realized immediately that he is extremely ambitious and willing to go to great lengths in order to be involved with his work. He exhibits enthusiasm and a lot of engagement in each of his projects, trying to stretch the boundaries of visual storytelling. With Heart of a Seal, which focuses on a small fishing village off Greenland’s coast, Lukas tells a story about cultural tradition and change and about the effects of global warming. In the past 50 years the Arctic island and its traditional community of fishermen and hunters has quickly developed into a modern society. Looking at his photographs, I am captured by Lukas’s poetic visual language and his unmistakable feeling for the right moment.
I am sure that Lukas’s residency at Docking Station will be a great opportunity for him to develop this project and to further contextualize his strong photographic approach.