Wild Alaska. Between nature and oil
Can you imagine what it would be like to have a grizzly bear, a tundra wolf, or a herd of caribou look back at you with curiosity rather than fear? This only happens in places so wild that the wildlife doesn’t know what a human being is. My colleague Tato Rosés and I have had the privilege of experiencing this on several occasions, and we want to fight to ensure that the wildest places on our planet remain so.
Alaska is home to some of the last truly wild places on Earth. However, humanity’s hunger for energy and power is putting their survival at risk. The aim of this project, which takes the form of a documentary, article, and talk, is to spread this dream of preserving wild nature.
MOVIE: THE CARIBOU PATH
TRAVEL JOURNAL: ARCTIC WILDLIFE NATIONAL REFUGE
My exhibition “Pinceladas de Wilderness” (Brushstrokes of Wilderness) connects with this project and reflects, through photographs, captions, and QR codes, on the fragility of the last wilderness areas on our planet.
Some images from the project
More details about the project
In 2022, my partner Tato Rosés and I decided to travel to Alaska on a purely personal trip with the intention of trekking through a remote area where we could encounter the local wildlife. After considering different areas, we decided on ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). Unfortunately, the main reason for our choice was fear, as we discovered that the US government has this wilderness area in its sights for oil exploration.
From north to south, the refuge stretches over 300 kilometers, from the Arctic coast, through tundra plains, mountains, and glaciers to the taiga forests and boreal forest in the southern area. This means that the refuge is home to a wide and rich variety of ecosystems. ANWR is home to 36 species of mammals, 9 marine mammals, 36 species of fish, and up to 180 species of birds.
After crossing the Romanzof Mountains on foot over 18 days to reach the coastal plain, we were able to see firsthand what is at stake if oil exploration goes ahead. To share what we saw and experienced with the world, we made a documentary. You can watch the trailer below:
Trailer for the film “The Paths of the Caribou.” You can find the full film here.
Years ago, when Trump supported his rhetoric on drilling in the Arctic by saying that this remote area was a desert with no interest that did not deserve to be protected, he did not expect to document such a contrast with those words: never in my life have I seen so much wildlife. During the 18 days in which I did not go a single day without seeing several animals, I saw thousands of caribou, three grizzly bears, a tundra wolf, dozens of Arctic ground squirrels and just as many Dall’s sheep, porcupines, several dozen ptarmigians, several bald eagles and other birds of prey, not to mention the omnipresent traces of other species such as red foxes, arctic foxes, and moose.
In 2025, with the new change of government in the US, not only ANWR but the entire Alaskan Arctic is back on the political playing field. That is why we decided to continue our project with a new documentary, this time exploring the northwestern part of Alaska, which was given the terrible name of National Petroleum Reserve Alaska in 1960.
Over the course of 20 days, we traveled, on foot and by packraft, the nearly 400 km of the Utukok River, which crosses two distinct ecosystems where a wide variety of wildlife lives or migrates, depending entirely on these lands remaining intact.
We are currently working on the documentary, which we hope to release in theaters at the end of April 2026. If you would like to help us or collaborate in any way, please contact us. Any help is more than welcome.
Let's talk
Would you like to support this project as a sponsor? Do you have any ideas and think it would be great to collaborate? Or perhaps you want to organize an audiovisual screening or a talk? Whatever the reason for your inquiry, please fill out the following contact form: