Joe Meehan Presents Arctic Work

Photographer Joe Meehan has been around. Over the past 15 years he has participated in three scientific expeditions to document the study of narwhals and the native people in the breathtaking landscapes of the high Canadian Arctic, the western coastline of Greenland and through ice fields out to Greenland’s Northern islands. 

Beginning in 2005, Meehan accompanied Dr. Martin Nweeia, a Sharon dentist,  on three trips to research the function of the narwhal’s tusk. The results of Nweeia’s study can be seen in a major exhibition, “Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend,” until August 2019 at the Aquatic Hall of the Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C. 

Local residents will have two opportunities to see many of Meehan’s photographs from the Smithsonian exhibition at a talk called “Land and People of the Arctic, Personal Experiences of an Expedition Photographer” at Noble Horizons on March 3 at 11 a.m. and at the Audubon Center in Sharon on Friday, March 23, from 7 to 8 p.m. Meehan will take the audience on an exciting journey through these barren icy climes, and introduce the Inuit people with whom he lived and studied.

Meehan will address many misconceptions about the narwhal.

The Arctic Narwhal, sometimes called, “The Unicorn of the Sea” is a whale with an unusually long tusk (which is actually a spiral shaped tooth) protruding from its jaw. Meehan will discuss the scientific findings by Nweeia and his crew and also explain what he learned about these Northern peoples and their unique terrain. He will recount the challenges of photographing in these harsh conditions. Meehan, a Salisbury resident, is a former professor who has taught at colleges and  universities in the U.S., England and Asia. He left academia in the 1980s to pursue his career as a photographer. He has worked as an editor and writer at many photography publications and has written 25 books on photographic techniques, several of which have received awards and been published in many languages.

 

March 3, 11 a.m. Noble Horizons, 17 Cobble Rd. Salisbury, CT   (860) 435-9851

March 23, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sharon Audobon Center 325 Cornwall Bridge Rd, Sharon, CT (860) 364-0520

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