Peter Pitseolak was born September 2, 1902, on Nottingham Island, Nunavut, and lived most of his life in traditional camps near Cape Dorset, on the southwest coast of Baffin Island. Peter was a photographer, sculptor, artist and historian, and Baffin Island's first indigenous photographer.

As the Inuit community began a dramatic transition from a traditional way of life to adopting modern technologies, Pitseolak dedicated himself to preserving knowledge of the customs, hunting techniques, and story-telling that characterized the old ways of living, through writing, sketching, and photography. Peter Pitseolak's nephew, Kananginak Pootoogook, admired his uncle and also became an artist. Pitseolak died in September of 1973, in Cape Dorset.