Each year an astouding phenomenon takes place in the coldest and mostly abandoned territories in Arctic Scandinavia. Thousands of reindeer make annual migrations with the help of indigenous Finno-Ugric people named Sami across the Sápmi area, which is their traditional territory. These people have herded reindeer over centuries, but in the present days only about 10% of Sami are connected to reindeer herding.
The journey of the reindeers begins in Karasjok, the Sami capital of Norway, goes through northern Scandinavia and ends behind the Finnish border. Around 3,500 reindeer and dozens of Sami make the annual trip across the snow, a journey which takes two months, covering hundreds of miles. A photographer Jan Helmer Olsen used a drone to film this migration, which is part of the perennial rhythm of herding life in the North.
While a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures:
