NEW WORK
Remote Alaska Community for US Census Bureau
We closed out last year shooting a commercial project for the U.S. Census Bureau in remote communities around Alaska. In preparation for launching the 2020 Census, the federal bureau needed photography and video to promote participation in the census nationwide. The decennial census has a long history of beginning in Alaska (since 1870) and the count would begin in the remote Yup’ik village of Toksook Bay.
The Bureau’s creative team decided to tell the story of enumerators that work in these harsh conditions. With the actual count beginning early in these communities, we spent time with the census workers as well as people in the villages to produce the work. Our crew was well received in Toksook Bay, with invitations to community events and into people’s homes. This warm welcome thankfully helped out crew endure the harsh conditions of working in Western Alaska in January. Most days featured a high temperature of forty-below zero and winds gusting to 30 mph.
But of course these conditions don’t even give the locals a second thought.