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.

Catch-up

Wow! Its been a while since anything has appeared here. The past two months have been hectic with Alaska salmon, Seasons of Subsistence, organizing a shoot in the South Pacific and the arrival of a new family member.

So here's the catch-up!

- In September the great folks over at Geographical magazine published a spread of my work from June this year covering subsistence salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska (some tears below). Big thanks to the the Geographical team for getting this work out there.

- Right now I'm writing from my hotel room in Honolulu on my way to Micronesia to shoot a story for the next three weeks. Its gonna be a wild ride with underwater work and some aerial too. More to come on this when I can.

- September was one of those dreaded desk-job months slogging through about 8 grant proposals for a new personal project I'm working on called Seasons of Subsistence. I don't wanna say too much about here since I'm going to be announcing the project properly at the start of 2010 including the launch of a dedicated website. But last week I got news that the project has been awarded its first grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum. Massive thank you to the Forum for supporting this project. The grant will ensure the project gets the kick-start it needs including essential components like the website and some preliminary production costs. Seasons of Subsistence is a personal documentary project that explores the subsistence culture of Native Alaskans in Bristol Bay, season by season. So stay tuned for more on this at the beginning of next year!

- And finally the end of October was crazed waiting for our baby to arrive. Fashionably late at 13 days overdue, but perfectly cooked at 9lbs 7oz I'm the proud father of a baby boy called Finnley. Wow!

Postcard from Time

Back in July Time magazine published a punchy piece about Bristol Bay and Pebble Mine. They used an image of mine taken on the back-deck of the fishing vessel Curragh, captained by Daniel Blakey.

LAX Magazine Highlights Bristol Bay

Nice little piece in LAX magazine covering Bristol Bay and the clear reasons to prevent Pebble Mine, potentially North America's largest open-pit mine, from being placed slap in the middle of the world's greatest salmon habitat!

Amazing Bubbles

A friend just sent me a link to these awesome bubble burst shots by Richard Heeks. They are incredible! How many of us can say we have seen a bubble bursting like this? No explosion, no projectile bubble remains flying into outer air. But, instead a gentle whispering of hairy bubble remains that shimmer into nothingness. Oh to see something new everyday...

(Thanks BONBI and Natalie for the intro)

Check out more of Richard's bubble work on his Flickr pages, they're awesome!

Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes

We spent the last few days getting very cold and very wet. But, what a landscape! The Valley of Ten Thousands of Smokes in Katmai National Park is a visually menacing place. It dominates you from start to finish and serves as an instant reminder of our small place in nature. In 1912 Novarupta exploded some 20 cubic km of volcanic debris in the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century, covering the valley in 100m of ash and pumice. As the ash settled to the valley floor the existing rivers boiled and the water turned to steam. The steam found its way to the surface and gave the valley its name. Fortunately the mountains seem a little calmer these days and offer some outstanding trekking and mountaineering. I'm itching to go back!