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Friday, November 16, 2018

Weekly Post, "The Daze of My Life: Robert Glenn Ketchum, An Autobiography"

The Daze of My Life:  Robert Glenn Ketchum, An Autobiography


 Biographies are studies of someone's life based on cumulative research. Good ones may reveal something, but probably barely scratch the surface of what actually went on. The internet is allowing me to do something VERY different. 
~Robert Glenn Ketchum

Friday, November 16, 2018

The Daze of My Life:  Robert Glenn Ketchum, An Autobiography #122: Daze, #122:  Shooting the image in my last post, encourages my expansion of subject matter from obvious fall colors, to other palettes. I also have large swaths of free time between exhibit receptions for “American Photographers and the National Parks,” (posts #116-117), so I leave my home in Maryland to live out of my van and pursue my color photography, trying to build a portfolio of work around an idea I have. I have always lived on the West Coast, and only recently have begun to visit the East, so what I know of it, is mostly big cities like New York and DC. Camping in the van becomes my doorway to a much more rural experience. Over the course of several seasons, I travel as far north as New Hampshire and the border with Canada, and south, down in to Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolina’s, often driving the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. In Vermont, I discover the Green Mountain trail system connects to lovely historic inns, so you can summit something different everyday, stay in a different inn every night, and do it all with a daypack. Really sweet! And, great food! Who could not resist climbing Mount Moosalamoo and being photographed with the summit signage?
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018 
@RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Weekly Post, "Fish Farms: Forming My World View Through Aquaculture in 1977" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Fish Farms:  Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

In 1977, I was commissioned by Elisabeth Mann Borgese to help do research, interviews, and take photographs for a book she was writing about worldwide aquaculture. It would be published by Harry N. Abrams, one of the world’s premier publishing houses, famous for their beautiful books. It would also involve around-the-world travel to 8 countries, and some of the most remarkable places I would ever visit. SEAFARM: The Story of Aquaculture was a very successful publication featuring over 100 of my images, and an exhibit I assembled with support from Nikon, became a Smithsonian traveling exhibition for 6-yrs., viewed by over 6-million people.  ~Robert Glenn Ketchum

Friday, November 16, 2018

FISHFARMS: Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #30:
Fish Farms #30:  Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #30: Because we are still not photographing aquaculture, the point of my trip, I am trying to conserve film to assure I will have enough for my assignment, but at the same time, I realize I am in an amazing place at an amazing time. In the company of Elisabeth’s friends, we ride a water taxi to lovely open-air restaurant located in a discreet corner of a large bay, that is also a very busy port. There is a striking contrast of old world-new world here because in the flow of traffic there are modern industrial cargo ships, a wide variety of unusual sailing craft, and many people fishing from dugout canoes. The breeze from the motion of the water taxi is refreshing, and the evening light is radiant, so once again I am seduced, I feel I should at least take a few pictures.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Thursday, November 15, 2018

Weekly Post, "My NEA Funded Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

My NEA Funded Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

In 1988, I was awarded an Artist-in-Residency at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. This was a small body of work created over three years, and eventually exhibited once at the university. Some images have been printed, but most have never been seen. I hope you enjoy these photographs. I think they are among some of the most beautiful I have ever taken.  ~Robert Glenn Ketchum



Thursday, November 15, 2018

University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #3:
Wisconsin#3:  The farm/field station that Marlin Johnson cares for on behalf of the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, is a cluster of buildings. Besides the house, there is a large barn, a grain silo, a sizable chicken coop, some mechanical sheds, a big kiln, and a large greenhouse. I will learn that there are always things going on at the property, and especially in the greenhouse. The students propagate seeds here; the harvested crops store here; many of the dried specimens are also displayed here. On this particular fall day, it is cold and windy outside, but the greenhouse quite cozy. I could not help but take this picture of harvested pumpkins sunning themselves. Soon they will have spooky faces, and we will all be eating pumpkin pie!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Weekly Post, "Sundance: Artist-In-Residence" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Sundance:  Artist In Residence
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

From 1987-1989, Robert Redford invited me to become the first visual Artist-In-Residence at his newly established Sundance Institute, part of the community he was building around his recently purchased ski resort in Utah. The residency provided me with subject matter that produced some of the most significant images of my career, but importantly, it also afforded me my first aerial work, a platform that would become increasingly important throughout my life. A limited amount of these images were ever published, and NONE of the aerials ever were. The best will now appear, please enjoy!  ~Robert Glenn Ketchum

Thursday, November 15, 2018

SUNDANCE: Artist In Residence, #18:
Sundance #18:  Higher above the Heber Valley floor the glow of fall color rages randomly up the hillsides, where it encounters more evergreen trees, adding yet another layer, a foil to the brilliance, into the fall mix. On a good day, I also experience fleeting holes of sunlight that pierce the cloud layers, and on occasion, flit across the landscape in such dramatically illuminating waves, it is hard to believe it isn’t choreographed. During some of my more weather-ladened shoots, I find myself on ridges, connected by narrow fire roads and a view like the one above. Standing here for quite some time, I could easily make dozens of images, as that spotlight on the far hillside is just one of many that swim over these mountains and valleys, lighting select trees, groves, and sometimes, just one entire mountain, but nothing else. I spend a lot of time trying to anticipate and record the “best” moment, whatever that means, when there are SO many!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Weekly Post, "Stoned Immaculate: A Trip in the Desert" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

STONED IMMACULATE:  A Trip in the Desert
by Robert Glenn Ketchum


As a young photographer, two places I “discovered” by chance greatly influenced both my photographic vision and my personal relationship with the greater planet. A previous blog, LIMEKILN, is the story of the first location. THIS is the second location which I discovered because my car broke down. As Jim Morrison/The Doors wrote, “Out here we is Stoned Immaculate!"



Wednesday, November 14, 2018
“Topological Wormhole"

circa 1985-1995
Stoned Immaculate, #105:
Immaculate, #105:  from the portfolio, STONED IMMACULATE

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd
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Weekly Post, "Arctic: At the Cutting Edge of Climate Change" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

ARCTIC:  At the Cutting Edge of Climate Change
by Robert Glenn Ketchum



In 1993, I began traveling to the Arctic. I have been across The Northwest Passage by yacht; to the North Pole twice; to little-visited Russian islands; and aboard research vessels in Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Baffin Island, taking the opportunity to visit Iqualuit, the capital of Nunavut, the recently created Inuit nation and territories.
Wednesday, November 14, 2018

ARCTIC:  At the Cutting Edge of Climate Change, #118:
ARCTIC, #118:  The helicopter pilot and I have been flying above Lancaster Sound and Baffin Island for a good part of the morning, when waves of fog begin to form. At one point we see a broad beach, and I suggest we land to watch the light show and have a look at things from ground level (last post). The beach is strange and spare, but the fog/light show is over the top. There is a cold wind blowing causing rolling tubes of fog sweep over us, noticeably dropping the temperature even further, and coating our plastic gear with moisture. Unexpectedly, and rather abruptly, the wind dies down, the turbulence stops, and the fog diffuses. Immediately diffuse vapor particles alight the sky with a golden glow, and then the sky and horizon merge. We are floating! For several minutes, the pilot and I are speechless, and I just take pictures, but the condition is clearly evolving, and the fog is becoming more dense, surrounding us. Finally, the pilot snaps out of our reverie and says we should probably fly. If the fog is this thick everywhere, he is concerned we might not find “Itasca" until it clears.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Weekly Post, "NO PEBBLE MINE Pictures from Ground Zero" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

NO PEBBLE MINE Pictures from Ground Zero 
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Since 1998, I have been working to protect the spectacular resources of southwest Alaska and the fishery of Bristol Bay. Two Aperture books, a national traveling exhibition, a massive coalition of concerned users, and a lot of personal lobbying, had it looking like we were almost there. Then Donald Trump took office claiming he would always put America, and American jobs first. SO WHY destroy a BILLION-dollar-a-year, RENEWABLE salmon fishery and over 100,000 jobs for a group of international mineral speculators that will leave us with a Superfund site to clean up, and NO fishery left edible? And yet, he did,..so please, keep saying NO TO THE PEBBLE MINE!
~Robert Glenn Ketchum


Tuesday, November 13, 2018 

NO PEBBLE MINE #322, Pictures from Ground Zero
NO PEBBLE MINE #322:  As we fly into the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, the terrain and habitat change in a noticeable way. For one, the refuge is more expansive than Wood-Tikchik State Park, where we have just been. It is easily two or three times larger, and that difference is visible immediately from the area. The valley we are following “down” from the mountains, broadens as it gets lower, finally spilling onto the basin floor that forms the refuge. Below our wings, several streams merge, and I can see others pouring in from elsewhere. Then, a number of lakes appear, into which these drainages are feeding. The pilot tells me that we are in the headwaters of the Togiak River, which we will now follow to the coast, and these are part of the Upper Togiak Lake(s). This parting view shows the headwater lakes, and looks south and west, back into the distant peaks which are part of Tikchik.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd @NRDC @OrvisFlyFishing #NoPebbleMine #LittleBearProd

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Weekly Post, "The Tongass: Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

THE TONGASS:  Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

In 1985, I began a 2-year commission to explore the Tongass rainforest, the largest forest in the United States Forest Service (USFS) system AND the largest temperate rainforest in the world. It was a unique, old-growth environment under siege from industrial logging. The resulting investigative book I published helped to pass the Tongass Timber Reform Bill, protect 1,000,000 acres of old-growth, and create 11 new wilderness areas. This is the story of how that was achieved.



 Tuesday, November 13, 2018

THE TONGASS:  Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #116:
THE TONGASS, #116:  Philip Slagter and I, regroup in Ketchikan after our cabin camp at Walker Lake, and prepare for our first kayak camping trip. We plan to go into Rudyerd Bay, one of the many fjords in Misty Fjords National Monument. We have a boat operator that will drop us, and pick us up, and we have even found someone to loan us a rifle, so that we finally have some bear protection. It has been an unusually warm and sunny summer, as we experienced at Walker Lake, but today, as we head for Rudyerd Bay, Misty Fjords and the Tongass RAINFOREST are doing what they do best,..raining. Really raining! Philip and I wish it were otherwise, but we do have to get used to it, so we are off for another adventure to add to our learning curve. It is not especially windy, but it is raining hard, and does so for most of our boat trip. It seems to abate as we motor into the Behm Canal, and when we turn into Rudyerd Bay, it stops for a brief while. We are hopeful, and about halfway into the fjord bay, we have our boat pilot drop us. This is a drill I will repeat many times over the ensuing years, but the thrill of it never seems to change - the loaded kayaks go over the side, you squeeze down into the them through all of the gear packed around you, everybody confirms time and place of pick up, the mothercraft departs,..and you and your crew are sitting in a deepwater fjord wilderness, encapsulated in a skinny, funny looking boat with one big, weird paddle, and looking for a place to call home. It has not yet occurred to us that a fjord might not offer a lot of campsites,..especially one that has an 18ft. tidal swing twice-a-day. Oh well, there certainly is no going back now!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Monday, November 12, 2018

Weekly Post, High and Wild: Three Years of Wandering in the Wind Rivers

High and Wild: Three Years of Wandering in the Wind Rivers
by Robert Glenn Ketchum

 After receiving my MFA from CalArts, I was invited by Bill Lund, Sharon Disney’s husband, to come stay at the families' Diamond-D Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming. Bill thought I might like to photograph in the nearby Wind River Mountains, which I did, backpacking through them extensively over the next three summers. Welcome to a world of big granite walls and huge alpine lakes!

Monday, November 12, 2018

High and Wild:  Three Years of Wandering in the Wind Rivers, #64:
Wind River, #64:  There are many curiosities in the rock-strewn valley past the end of the last Titcomb Lake. The flowering meadows have all but disappeared, and in their place stand erratic boulders, and places where the slab granite has been fractured so perfectly, it appears to be hand-hewn. Belle and I have wandered off in our own direction when we come to this - a place where the river is wide, shallow, and flowing through rock pools. These are not typical “wild” pools, however, as they are more like manufactured ones, some are so perfectly cut. The fracturing of the granite all about us is sheer and precise - straight lines and AMAZING right angles! Then, Belle finds a perfect bathtub (left) and, of course, jumps in. The amazing rock “pool” is so tempting, I nearly join here, but decide against it as I would easily get hypothermic in the cold water, and then trying to dry of in this wind. Belle is NOT having that problem - LOL!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Weekly Post, "The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get" by Robert Glenn Ketchum

The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get
by Robert Glenn Ketchum


Growing up my parents had a home near Sun Valley, Idaho. It was there that I learned to ski. Over many years I befriended members of the Decker Flats Climbing and Frisbee Club, with whom I had both life, and art-forming outdoor experiences. I had my camera, and these are my adventures.  Enjoy!!  ~Robert Glenn Ketchum



Monday, November 12, 2018

The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get - Sun Valley and the DFC&FC, #132:
THE HIGHER YOU GET, THE HIGHER YOU GET, #132:  Above Boulder Basin and the ruins of the old mining town, there are numerous open slopes that ascend to the exposed rock summits, and many seem stabile enough to ski. For whatever it is worth, all of us trail avalanche cords behind us, and we carry Pieps avalanche beacons in our pockets. We also all have snow shovels in our day packs. We have come to have fun, not get buried. The skiing is GREAT, and for me, the views even greater. Best of all, I am getting pictures that will serve both POWDER magazine, and my own personal portfolio of B&W work, “WINTERS: 1970-1980.” At the moment of this image, however, I am about to lock down my heels and “drop-in.” There is a beautiful, long run back down to the basin floor in front of me, and the light is great. I would like to be aggressive about this, but having two Nikons strapped to my chest warrants more caution. Best not to take a header in deep powder. For scale of the terrain we are in, notice the limber pine on the rock outcrop in the lower, middle of the image. THAT is a HUGE tree!
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2018, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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