As 2019 Comes To An End
COMMUNITY
Writer: Vilborg Einarsdottir
Photographs: Rannveig Hrafnkelsdottir, Hans Vera, Angu Motzfeldt, Daniel Bookham, Olafur Sigurdsson, Svein Harald Sønderland, Janus Hansen, Helge M. Markusson, Maud Wang Hansen
December 2019
As 2020 draws near, the dark winter days are getting slightly shorter and Christmas decorations still adorn our High North region, the JONAA editorial team wishes readers a wonderful year to come.
We are grateful and proud for the growth of readership in the past year, which has more than tripled and we look towards 2020 with high ambitions of bringing more quality articles and more outstanding photography showing life and environment, communities, people and places in our special place on the planet - the Arctic and the Sub-Arctic.
We begin this year’s Christmas journey in the northernmost permanent settlement on the planet, Ny-Ålesund on the Svalbard archipelago, 1,237 km from the North Pole. An international science community, embraced by the polar night, as the sun does not rise from October 25th until February 17th. JONAA©Svein Harald Sønderland
Photographs from St. John’s Newfoundland-Labrador, showing a family selecting their Christmas tree and light sculptures at the Memorial University’s Botanical Garden annual light festival. JONAA©Andrea King
Next stop is Iceland. Above Christmas carols are played for shoppers in Hafnarfjordur JONAA©Olafur Sigurdsson
Then it is on to Akureyri, the capital of North Iceland - a true winter wonderland, as seen in these beautiful pictures from past weeks in December. JONAA©Rannveig Hrafnkelsdóttir
A dark December night in Nuuk Greenland. JONAA©Angu Motzfeldt
Then across the North Atlantic we stop in Maine, where the state’s iconic lobster marks Christmas like any other time of year.
JONAA©Daniel Bookham
Jólaskipið, or the Christmas ship is a tradition in the Faroe Islands. The ship sails every year by the northern towns of Leirvík and Klaksvík, with a dozen of Santas onboard, who go ashore in the villages armed with Christmas candies and Christmas stories to meet local children. These pictures are from the ship’s arrival to Klaksvík photographed by JONAA©Janus Hansen
Nólsoyarkóriđ - is a local choir of the small island of Nólsoy in the Faroes that performs at various events during Christmas celebrations, and of course on Christmas Eve at the Nólsoy church, built in 1863. JONAA©Maud Wang Hansen
Pictured on an evening walk on Christmas day by the harbour in Nólsoy in the Faroe Islands, where these grand whalebones from the late 1890’s take on the role of decorations at Christmas time. JONAA©Maud Wang Hansen.
Above, the harbour of Tromsø, North Norway on Christmas night. The other three pictures are photographed during the Christmas holidays, in Tromsø’s surrounding nature. JONAA©Helge M. Markusson
We end this year’s Christmas photostory with a view of Reykjavik, Iceland as seen from the decorated cemetery in nearby Mosfellsbær. JONAA©Hans Vera
Vilborg Einarsdottir is the Editor-in-Chief of JONAA, the Journal of the North Atlantic & Arctic and a JONAA partner & founder. Formally a journalist for 12 years at Morgunblaðið in Iceland, she has worked since 1996 as a specialised producer of film, photography and media productions on extreme locations in Arctic Greenland and as a cultural producer in the Nordic-Arctic region. She is an awarded film and documentary scriptwriter and editor of photography books from the Arctic.
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