This research project begins by tracing William Bradford's expeditions to Greenland in 1869, both in relation to representational or artistic histories of the route, and to these same geographies in their current state of imposition and extraction. Therefore, an analysis that draws from a chronology of Greenlandic representations and their norms to the contemporary geopolitical tensions of the country, arguing for a strong link between the two. William Bradford's voyage from Newfoundland to the northwestern waters of Greenland was narrated and documented by himself in the book Arctic Regions, published in 1873. The reason for the expedition was 'solely for the purposes of art'. Consequently, the narrative is accompanied by his paintings and an extensive collection of photographs taken by John Lapham Dunmore and George P. Critcherson - a new medium for the Arctic endeavour and therefore a crucial shift in representation. The book therefore provides a glimpse into a broader study of the semiotic visual structures of an overarching narrative as told by Arctic exploration that dominates collective understanding (by those outside the region).The route itself travels along the west coast of the island, along the then and now most densely populated areas of Greenland, allowing for the study of a 'newly' colonised landscape in comparison to the current 'post-colonial' but equally contested situation of the present. In addition, the visual output of the expedition provides an introduction to tracing the changing environmental conditions, for example in relation to centralised urbanisation through Danish occupation, mainly in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, or mining activities in the south. The introduction of photography into the region introduces referential visual analysis as a methodology for studying an intensifying geopolitical context.