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Christmas gift earns prize money
Stunning community photographs awarded by Nunavut Tunngavik

Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Friday, January 15, 2016

IKPIARJUK/ARCTIC BAY
A 2014 Christmas gift paid itself off in spades almost a year to the date later.

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Esau Tatatoapik was inspired to get into photography as a child while watching his father. He remembers receiving a camera as a Christmas gift at age 12. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

Mary Tatatoapik gave her husband, Esau Tatatoapik, a Nikon D7100 camera for Christmas just over a year ago. Three days before last Christmas, Esau used it to capture an award-winning photograph, the community of Arctic Bay from afar on a clear night.

"That evening, I wanted to capture the whole community, which was also lightened by the moonlight," Tatatoapik told Nunavut News/North.

Last week, he was declared the winner of a Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. photo contest for a prize of $1,000 and an enlarged copy of the image. The photo will also be featured in NTI's annual report.

Tatatoapik remembers being inspired as a child watching his father use different kinds of cameras. The holiday season and cameras have a strong connection in his life.

"I remember at Christmas time, when I was about 12 years old, my father got me a toy plastic camera as a Christmas present that actually used 35mm films, and that's when I started actually using the camera to take images," he recalls.

Over the years, he experimented with different kinds of cameras and different images, such as landscape, wildlife and people.

Early in 2015, he was contacted by a group called Friends of the North, whose members saw his images online and wanted to use them for a calendar to raise funds for the Arctic Bay food bank.

That same contact alerted Tatatoapik to the NTI ad for the photography contest. At first he didn't pay much attention.

"When I submitted my photos, I wasn't really going for the winning photo, but at least to participate," he said, noting he's not in photography for the money.

He was very surprised when he won the contest with that photo. A quick look at his Facebook page, Esau Tatatoapik Photography, shows many potential award winners.

Aimo Paniloo of Clyde River placed second in NTI's contest with a photo of Northern lights at low tide, while Kimmirut resident Pudloo Pitsiulak came third with a shot of hunters cutting up seal in the sunlight.

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