THE CONTEXT

February 2013. The oil giant Shell is preparing to drill for the rst time in the Arctic Ocean o the shore of Alaska, promising to manage the risk of a spill. The descendants of the Iñupiat, inhabitants of the region for thousands of years, have long pro ted from the bounty of oil. Nonetheless, some worry that o shore drilling will threaten their traditional practice of whale hunting, the last living custom of a culture on the road to disappearance.

Shell Oil gave up on drilling in the Arctic Ocean. The drop in price per barrel combined with the expense and risk of drilling in the Arctic Circle dissuaded the giant oil company from continuing. A few months before Barack Obama’s term ended, the president made the Arctic ocean a refugee, hence banning the extraction of hydrocarbons o of U.S. shores in the Arctic. But in January 2017, President Donald Trump promised to repeal any measure enacted by his predecessor to limit drilling on the Arctic…

THE PROJECT

Zoé Lamazou is a journalist, Victor Gurrey is a graphic designer. For three months, they investigated and observed the transformation underway in the Arctic – in the environment, the social practices, the expec- tations, and the ideals of the inhabitants of the Great Alaskan North. People setting o on great journeys opened up to them: traditional whalers, but also oilmen and scientists who had worked in the region for a long time. Their stories of being (and staying) alive stand as individual episodes in a longer and more complex story whose conclusion matters to the entire planet.

« A Whaling Season in Alaska » combines interviews, texts, drawings, photos et videos. The soundtrack, composed by Raphaël Treiner, actively contributes to the user’s immersion in the story.