A YEAR LONG PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF ALASKA FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION & CULTURAL PRESERVATION
The Great Alaska Project is a year long documentary and fine art photography project being undertaken to create a visual record of Alaska at a critical moment of its ecological and cultural history. Spurred by the accelerating effects of climate change and the recent opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, this project will create a large body of photographs that will function both as a work of fine art and as a catalyst for wilderness conservation & cultural preservation.
The mission is the creation of a museum quality exhibition, a large format book, and a public digital archive for educational & research purposes that will underscore the need to protect a fragile and far removed corner of our country.
ALASKA: FRONTLINE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
While we imagine Alaska to be a vast and indomitable land, it is in fact, the canary in the coal mine for our planet. An effect known as Arctic amplification is warming Alaska at rates far higher than the rest of the world. The result is receding glaciers, melting permafrost, wildlife habitat destroyed, and the Inuit villages that have endured for millennia are being forced to relocate due to coastal erosion. At the same time, the recent opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling places one of the last great tracts of pristine American wilderness in jeopardy.
A failed Arctic ecosystem will have dire effects for the whole planet. Yet when we sound the alarm by speaking in degrees centigrade of warming, of inches of sea level rise, and use terms like feedback loops, we become overwhelmed. We tune out rather than take action. What moves minds is a visceral, emotional connection to the land and the people being affected by the changing climate. Photography can do this. It can push the needle towards policy change, towards wilderness conservation, and towards cultural preservation.
The Great Alaska Project will continue this great tradition — to connect us to the land, the faces, the cultures, and the wildlife that is already being lost to climate change.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The year long project will occur over four seasonal field sessions totaling 20 weeks in the field documenting both the landscape and the human communities whose lives are shaped by it.
-
The project employs an immersive, seasonal approach with four sessions of field work in Alaska over the course of one year. Each phase will last 4 to 6 weeks allowing for deep engagement with locations and communities. The structure is designed to allow the time to build trust & understanding necessary for in-depth documentary work.
-
This project will capture the shear scale, breadth, and stunning beauty of the state ... from the mountains of the Brooks Range to the glacial bays of the Inside Passage to the tundra of the North Slope.
-
Subjects to include the Inuit communities such as the Inupiat & Gwich’In people whose culture is tied to the caribou of the North Slope as well as the commercial & subsistence fishing industries; these groups survival will be impacted by a warming climate.
SUPPORTING THE PROJECT
The Great Alaska Project requires financial support because the work it demands — and the scale at which it must be done — cannot be accomplished without significant resources.
Twenty weeks of fieldwork across one of the most remote and logistically challenging landscapes on Earth requires bush flights into roadless wilderness, ferry passages and boats to, as well as guides & Indigenous consultants who can open doors that no outsider can open alone. This is not a project that can be executed from a distance or on a modest budget — it requires full immersion across four seasons, in conditions that range from the frozen Arctic winter to the midnight sun of the Alaskan summer.
Every dimension of this project is in service of a public good: a permanent visual record of a place and a people that is vanishing. That is precisely why it depends on the generosity of those who understand what is at stake.
Contributions can be made directly through the link above.
If you are interested in more information about the project, please inquire at klein@joshuatreestudio.com