Daniel Dorsa's 'To Skip A Sinking Stone' Captures Greenland's Contradictions

Daniel Dorsa's new photobook 'To Skip A Sinking Stone', published by Deadbeat Club Press, explores the tension between Greenland's melting ice sheet and the daily lives of its inhabitants. Dorsa first traveled to Greenland in 2023 to document the S.I.L.A. research group, which studies ice sheet melt and is named after the Inuit concept Sila. After an initial magazine pitch was rejected, he visited anyway over three years, eventually shifting from a scientific focus to a personal meditation on place. The book juxtaposes vivid color against stark white, warmth against freeze, and includes portraits like that of Nava, a young queer woman in Sisimiut photographed in traditional furs. Dorsa collaborated with Deadbeat Club's Clint and Alex on sequencing and design, opting for a half-toned silkscreened cover with a vellum wrap containing his writings. The title, borrowed from Mutual Benefit's album 'Skip a Sinking Stone', reflects the idea that climate change requires collective action, yet joy persists. Dorsa's fourth book follows 'Paradise' (2021), 'The Sun Was Gold Like A Yolk Dripping' (2023), and 'Lupine' (2025). The conversation with Tracy L Chandler, also published by Deadbeat Club, explores Dorsa's skateboarding roots, his morning pages practice, and his approach to color and sequencing.