Seasons of Subsistence Online

What better way to start the week than by launching a new website: www.seasonsofsubsistence.com



Seasons of Subsistence is a new project in which I am documenting the lives of Native Alaskans living in Bristol Bay. The project all started in the summer of 2009 when I was invited to photograph a group of Yup'ik Eskimos at their summer fishing camp on the banks of the Nushagak River. Every summer five families migrate 160 miles down river to a place called Lewis Point where they set up camp and wait for the returning king salmon. Three generations work side-by-side, catching and smoking fish in much the same way as their ancestors hundreds of years before.

Over the course of my time at Lewis Point I learned more about Yup'ik life and the subsistence lifestyle they lead. Living season to season, the families of Lewis Point hunt and gather up to 80% of their calories from the land. Inspired by these families and their ability to lead a subsistence lifestyle in North America despite mounting social and environmental shifts, I committed myself to telling their story of life on the tundra.

So, a new website and the beginning of a two year initiative to document Native Life in Bristol Bay through a series of multimedia stories. From the king salmon harvest at Lewis Point to the last walrus hunters of Togiak Village, Seasons of Subsistence captures a remarkable culture and a disappearing way of life. Please join me here on my blog or over at seasonsosubsistence.com for up to date info and to follow my adventures in Bristol Bay.

The Alaskan Summer Assignment

I am currently in Dillingham, Alaska on my way to King Salmon, Alaska. I'll be on assignment until early August for one of my conservation NGO clients. The assignment is a long one but its going to be fascinating. We are photographing the Bristol Bay Salmon fishery, the largest wild salmon resource in the world and all of the fishermen and processors who fish up here. Like the salmon many of these folks migrate each summer from various places around the USA, united in one common cause - fish'in for salmon.

However, there is one other common cause which unites many of the fishermen and why I have been commissioned to photograph this particular fishery and thats the proposed Pebble Mine Project. Just like Bristol Bay has the largest salmon resource in the world, Pebble Mine could, potentially, be the largest open pit mine in the world. My client, along with many other organisations, is working hard to prevent this mine from going ahead, not least because it threatens the future viability of the Bristol Bay Salmon fishery.

I'll be writing regularly over the next two months about my time up here so check back for updates and some introductions to interesting characters. In the meantime here is some background reading on the issues if your interested:

1. The Renewable Resources Coalition

2. The Pebble Partnership

3. Journeys Into the Pebble Mine Region

4. Truth About pebble

5. Save Bristol Bay

I have tried to give a balanced overview of attitudes towards the mine, if you take a look at all of these you'll notice that there are very mixed feelings.

More to come.......