Flying to Alaska

I'm writing from Dillingham, Alaska on my way up to a remote village called New Stuyahok. I'm heading up to photograph the winter lifestyle of Yup'ik Eskimos and create the next story for a new personal project I am working on called Seasons of Subsistence. This should be a great trip with dog sledge racing, ice-fishing and New Stuyahok's winter festival, I can't wait. Flying into Dillingham this afternoon was wild! I have never been up here in the winter and seeing the vast tundra frozen and covered with ice was breathtaking; even the great Nushagak River was frozen solid. So a winter adventure ahead. I hope to be blogging semi-regularly (when internet access permits) so stay-tuned to the blog or check-out the news section of Seasonsofsubsistence.com

The iPhone photo was taken just before making our decent into Dillingham - crazy how the blades from the prop have appeared in the image!

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.