Seconded By: Vladimir Karamazov,
SILA is the latest multimedia project by photographer and film director Ciril Jazbec, created over several years in Greenland. The work is both a photographic series and a short documentary film, offering a nuanced portrayal of Inuit youth navigating the tension between tradition and change. Set on Uummannaq Island—600 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle—the project focuses on young Greenlanders who were raised in the Uummannaq Children’s Home, a unique foster community that has supported generations of local children.
Through intimate imagery and quiet observation, SILA captures moments of profound personal transformation. Marius learns to hunt seals on the sea ice, continuing ancestral practices while also experimenting with electronic music—a personal fusion of heritage and modern expression. Jane, preparing to leave the island for college, processes grief and anxiety through the art of Inuit drum dancing, drawing strength from the very traditions that root her.
At its core, SILA is a story of resilience. It explores how the younger generation seeks meaning and direction in a landscape both physically extreme and emotionally charged by the effects of global change. The Arctic has long been a symbol of environmental fragility, but this project shifts the lens toward the human stories unfolding in its heart. Rather than focus on melting ice or rising temperatures, SILA reveals the emotional terrain of a generation growing up with both the burden and the beauty of inheritance.
Photographed in close collaboration with local partners and with deep respect for Inuit culture, SILA offers a visual experience that is as poetic as it is urgent. The series invites viewers to reflect on the universal themes of identity, belonging, and the search for purpose—especially in times of uncertainty. It is a project about holding on and letting go, about finding your voice on the edge of the world.
SILA
An aerial view of Uummannaq town, perched on Uummannaq Island and surrounded by the vast frozen expanse of the Uummannaq Icefjord in northwestern Greenland. With just over 1,400 inhabitants, Uummannaq is the eighth-largest town in the country and home to Greenland’s most northerly ferry terminal. Despite its striking beauty and cultural richness, Uummannaq remains incredibly isolated—there are no roads connecting towns in Greenland, making travel both expensive and challenging, especially for young Inuit seeking opportunities beyond their communities.
SILA
Heidinnguaq Jensen, a musician raised at the Children’s Home in Uummannaq, listens to music on her phone while sailing through the icy waters of Uummannaq Icefjord in northern Greenland. Dreaming of becoming a traveling professional musician, Heidinnguaq finds rhythm and reflection amid the towering icebergs of her homeland.
SILA
Miannguaq Jensen, 22, sits in the warm embrace of Uummannaq’s Children’s Home, where she is spending a sabbatical year dedicated to work, music, and self-discovery. Together with her twin sister, she writes songs that reflect their shared journey as young Inuit women, with hopes of recording an album in the near future. Although she is not currently studying, Miannguaq dreams of becoming a chef and building a meaningful life rooted in both creativity and care for her community. Like many young Inuit, she is torn between the traditions of her small hometown and the broader opportunities offered in Nuuk or Denmark—a growing trend as youth seek futures beyond the isolation and emotional weight of Arctic winters.
SILA
Paula Jane Sanimuinaq and Johannes Løvstad Ostermann journey across the Uummannaq Icefjord by sled, traveling from Uummannaq to the Uumannecha Camp on Ikerasak Island. The Children’s Home often organizes these trips to provide a change of scenery for the children. On this occasion, the group embarked on an adventure to engage in ice fishing and seal hunting, embracing traditional skills and the Arctic way of life.
SILA
A quiet winter day in Uummannaq, a remote Arctic town in northwestern Greenland. Life here is shaped by isolation, harsh weather, and months of polar night. Despite its breathtaking beauty, Greenland faces one of the world’s highest suicide rates—particularly among youth—highlighting the deep mental health challenges in these northern communities.
SILA
A group from the Children’s Home in Uummannaq crosses the frozen Icefjord by snowmobiles and sleds on their way to the remote camping cabin ‘Uummannecha’ on Ikerasak Island. These journeys offer the children a chance to reconnect with traditional ways of life and the deep-rooted culture of the Arctic—an essential part of healing and building resilience in a region facing immense social and environmental challenges.
SILA
Leona Mikaelsen, a young Inuit girl born with captivating mismatched eyes, watches as a local hunter opens a freshly caught seal at the remote Uumannecha Camp on Ikerasak Island, Uummannaq, Greenland, on March 12, 2024. After a day spent learning ancient seal-hunting techniques, the hunter returned to the camp, where children, including Leona, eagerly awaited the opportunity to partake in the traditional ritual of consuming fresh seal liver, believed to impart strength. Leona quietly smeared blood on her face, an act imbued with cultural and personal significance.
SILA
René Kristensen, a social worker from the Uummannaq Children’s Home, leads a group of youth from Uummannaq Children’s Home across the frozen Icefjord to collect freshwater ice from a grounded iceberg—used later to cook lunch. The children carry traditional fishing sticks to test and crack the ice as they walk. Once reliably frozen for months, the fjord now sees increasingly unpredictable ice conditions due to rising temperatures, making such journeys both more precious and more perilous.
SILA
A portrait of Paula Jane Sanimuinaq on the Uummannaq Icefjord, her gaze reflecting the weight of a pivotal decision. Seeking solace in the traditional arts of mask and drum dancing, Jane contemplates leaving her island home to pursue education in Ilulissat, a choice that intertwines her cultural roots with aspirations for the future.
SILA
A seal paw lies on the sea ice near the settlement of Saattut, not far from Uummannaq. Though traditional hunting is in decline, many families in northern Greenland still rely on seal meat for sustenance—an essential source of food and cultural continuity in one of the harshest environments on Earth. As sea ice becomes increasingly unreliable, so too does the future of this way of life.