Die Arktis — 66,5 Grad Nord

A major documentary production exploring the beauty, remoteness and rapidly changing reality of the Arctic, produced by Colourfield for ARTE and ZDF.

The project resulted in a 90-minute documentary and a three-part Terra X series, telling stories from across the Arctic – one of the most remote and rapidly changing regions of our planet.

For the production, I worked on two shoots in Greenland and one in Norway, covering camera, aerial cinematography, interviews and timelapse. While some parts were created as part of the wider production team, I also travelled and worked independently on location, taking responsibility for capturing complete parts of the story with a small and flexible setup.

That meant moving between very different ways of working: conducting interviews and documenting people and their environment, capturing landscapes from the ground and air, and creating dedicated timelapse sequences – often while adapting to weather, accessibility, limited infrastructure and rapidly changing Arctic conditions.

The aerial cinematography helped establish scale, isolation and the relationship between people and their environment, while interviews brought those enormous landscapes and changes back to individual experiences. My timelapse work was used prominently, including in the opening sequence, establishing the visual atmosphere of the documentary from its first moments.

Being able to work independently was particularly important in these remote environments. Rather than bringing a large production setup everywhere, the approach could remain mobile, observational and close to the story – reacting to situations as they happened.

The resulting films combine documentary storytelling, science, human stories and cinematic imagery across the Arctic.

“Die Arktis – 66,5 Grad Nord” was nominated for the 2024 Deutscher Fernsehpreis in the category Best Camera – Information / Documentary. I was proud to have contributed to the cinematography behind the production as part of its wider camera team.

Camera · Aerial Cinematography · Interviews · Timelapse — 2× Greenland · Norway