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Friday, April 19, 2019

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, April 19, 2019

The Daze of My Life:  Robert Glenn Ketchum, An Autobiography #144: Daze, #144:  The Indian Point power plant, and the abandoned landing in Beacon (last two posts) are an important expansion of my vision, but they are industrial sites relatively close to where I am living. Traveling more widely up and down the Hudson River Valley, I come to realize, historically there has been a significant amount of industrial development on the river between Albany and Troy to the north. Some of it has closed down, leaving just abandoned buildings, some of it is still operational, and much of it has caused significant pollution to the mid-river. Many of the companies do not seem to mind me photographing their properties, if I explain my project to them, and ask for permission. Their concerns are less about my picture results, than they are about my safety and my willingness to observe strict protocols. This access allows me to consider the visual aspects of industry, a truly different American landscape I am starting to explore more and more.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019 
@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, April 19, 2019

FISHFARMS:  Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #52:
Fish Farms #52:  Elisabeth and I, and our hosts are headed for Madras, which is a considerable distance up the coast of the Bay of Bengal. All along the way there are villages often extending right out onto sweeping beaches filled with boats and other aspects of fishing cultures. The first few stops we make are at large bays that have expansive sandy shores. As we move farther north, however, the bays become less defined, and rocky shores replace sandy ones. At one of our stops, we come upon a very specific industry, to which all the boatmen in the community visit. These guys make rope. Finished coils are visible in the foreground, but raw materials are scattered in the background. Probably a combination of jute and palm, these fibers will be soaked, pounded, and woven together, creating a strong rope line that all the fishermen use.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Thursday, April 18, 2019

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, April 18, 2019

University of Wisconsin: Artist In Residence, #25:
Wisconsin #25:  The stream that flows through the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha's biological field station (last two posts) feeds into a large lake nearby, that is not part of our property. Nonetheless, it is an aspect of the Kettle Moraine I visit regularly, because it represents a culmination of this unique landscape created from glacial debris. This lake is a big “kettle.” Numerous streams, such as the one across the UW property, flow in. The lake hosts a plethora of migrating birds, and the nearshore is a bio-diversity extravaganza, with wetlands, water lilies, and more weeds than you can shake a stick at (sorry for that, I could not resist). As you can see here, there are homes around the lake, most of which have small docks, and boats of some kind. There is also a very nice boardwalk in numerous places that allow traversing the shore by walking above the swampy parts. If you read my other blogs, you know I have learned to advantage an elevated perspective, so the boardwalk for me is a most welcome POV.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @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, April 18, 2019

SUNDANCE: Artist In Residence, #40:
Sundance #40:  My purpose in overnight camping at Sundance’s Bearclaw Cabin is to see a full moonrise, and hopefully a sunrise the next morning, other than that I am not sure what to expect. Despite the obscuring layer of smog that lies over Provo and the Great Salt Lake basin to the west, to the east it is “cold and clear.” Visibility is spectacular in the Heber Valley, and well beyond. My friends and I have a great dinner in the comfort of the cabin, and now, fully adorned with layers of fleece and down, we are outside in sling chairs enjoying some libations. We know the moon will rise “out there,” somewhere, but as we await it, something else quite unexpected happens. The sun is setting directly behind us, and the last rays of light set the sky aglow. Then, from behind the distant mountains, the blue aura of night begins to creep up. This spectacle of the split-toned sky across such a vast landscape is freaking amazing, so much so, when the moon finally does pop up, it seems irrelevant. Nonetheless (as you might expect) a howling good time is had by us all.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

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, April 17, 2019
“Heliotropic Seep"
circa 1985-1995

Stoned Immaculate, #127:
Immaculate, #127:  from the portfolio, STONED IMMACULATE

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @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, April 17, 2019

ARCTIC:  At the Cutting Edge of Climate Change, #140:
ARCTIC, #140:   The river my helicopter pilot and I have decided to follow for awhile, initially attracts our attention because of its unusual green color, which we think might be due to algae growth in thermal-warmed water. At the point we discover it (last post) we are above a valley flying into the interior of Baffin Island. It is our intention to navigate a route to the north, then back to the east shore of Lancaster Sound, where we expect to find “Itasca.” Rather obligingly, the colorful watercourse we have chosen to follow, also turns into a narrowing side-valley and heads north. Follow the meanders, it all gets a lot more interesting, as the water begins to change color, transitioning from a cloudy green shade to an ever-more translucent blue-green. Several small side streams feed into the one we follow, then suddenly, our narrow valley opens onto a new broad plain, that doesn’t look like anything else we have seen on the entire trip. The cerulean water seems to be flowing through golden sand, and some sort of dark mud layers, appear to be leaching out of the brown tundra valley floor. This basin is a color spectacle compared to the tonally similar valleys we have been exploring for the last few days. We have found something VERY interesting!

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Tuesday, April 16, 2019

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, April 16, 2019 

NO PEBBLE MINE #344, Pictures from Ground Zero
NO PEBBLE MINE #344:  We awake early at our camp, mid-river on the Goodnews, and the promised weather has not arrived, but is arriving. I collect my gear, and load the boat to head downstream under an increasingly occluded sky. It seems to be warming as the storm comes in, and our journey back to the village dock at Goodnews Bay is an effortless morning run, as we hoped it would be. When we arrive at the village, we can see the weather coming from out over the Pacific, and it appears dark and impressive. My hosts tell me that if my plane does not come before the weather arrives, it will not be coming until the storm ends. If I need to take cover, or overnight, they tell me that half way to the village is a laundry, and a small store. There are NO facilities in the village. I can shelter, or sleep, in the laundry, and there is “some” food available in the store. There are also 8 other men that have just come off a fishing float down the river, and they expect a cargo plane to pick them up. Their gear load is massive, including big tents, several boats, and lots of paddles, not to mention rod caddies. Eyeing the approaching weather, my hosts wish me luck, and head their boat back upriver. I sit with the fishermen waiting, and we all watch the storm blowing up. The first of strong gusting winds arrive, and collectively, we start thinking about what gear needs to be protected, but as we rise to move our bags around, we can hear the roar of an approaching plane engine,..and the first drops of rain start to fall.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @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, April 16, 2019

THE TONGASS:  Stop the Cut, There are Salmon in the Trees, #138:
THE TONGASS, #138:  Our guided group adventure has begun. We have loaded our canoes at the head of the Seymour Canal and are now adjusting to paddling them, as we begin to work our way south to Mole Harbor. Because the canoes are carrying a lot of food and gear, they are heavy, making steering them more difficult. They are also a little cramped, and we all get stiff sitting in the cold breeze as we paddle. Jeff Sloss is the Alaska Discovery guide leading us, and although he is younger than Philip and me, he has been doing trips like this for a long time, and we have much to learn from him. In fact, this trip would form a bond of trust between Jeff and me, and we would remain friends, working together many more times in my 25yrs. in Alaska. At the moment, however, we have been paddling for several hours and everyone needs a break. The tide has been dropping, and some significant shellfish beds are being revealed, so Jeff suggests we stop for some fishing and clamming. THIS is why you want to trust your guide in Alaska - shellfish poisoning, and sometimes death, is common, so you want someone who really knows what they are doing to make the decision when to feed off the tideline.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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Monday, April 15, 2019

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, April 15, 2019

High and Wild:  Three Years of Wandering in the Wind Rivers, #86:
Wind River, #86:  For Vicki Golden and I, our downclimb from Wall Lake basin to the Cook Lakes will be the steepest descent of our day. Most of the walk out to Elkhart Park is relatively flat after that. Vicki and I make the scramble in less than 45-minutes, and then we pause to shift into another mode. At the foot of the waterfall trail leading up into Wall Lake basin, we stop for snacks and LOTS of water. I take this one last picture looking up the trail, and marvel that you would never know such a huge lake is up there. Then, with our break completed, I strap my cameras down, and we begin a very high-paced trail walk, intending to go all the way to our parked car without stopping again. Our day remains reasonably cool, with no weather, and we are in such good condition, our walk is tiring but, actually enjoyable, BECAUSE WE COULD. We reach Elkhart Park in the late afternoon, and head down the hill to Pinedale, where we will check in to the Log Cabin Motel, and await the arrival of our friend, Michael Knowlin.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @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, April 15, 2019

The Higher You Get, The Higher You Get - Sun Valley and the DFC&FC, #154: DFCFC, #154:  We linger outside our snow cave-hotel into the twilight watching the alpenglow light show (previous posts), enhanced by the stunning cold and clear weather. We are all wearing layer-upon-layer of wool, down, and shells, so even at -15˙, we are all comfortable,..then the “breeze” picks up. The wind chill takes less than 10-minutes to drive us all inside, where with candles resting in spoons stuck in the walls, sleeping bags, and some modest libations, we find ourselves quite cozy. The party lasts for a bit, but we are all tired, so candles out. As I drift off in the warmth of the sleeping bag, I can hear the wind really gusting and am glad to be so well-sheltered. I am sleeping closest to the exit portal of our cave, and in the middle of the night, I hear Jennifer get up to go out to the bathroom,..but too much time goes by, and she does not return, so I go after her. I find her hypothermic, with her pants down, and cold enough, she cannot get them back up. I correct that, get her back in the cave, and then Gordon and I warm her up. Once that drama is over, everyone goes back to sleep well. The morning dawns stellar clear, and an excellent breakfast is had by all, as we slowly strip off our layers. With conditions like this, it is clearly my day to fulfill any shots for POWDER magazine, so I am going to be VERY busy, because everyone has different plans. Mila is going to stay in camp and do an extended yoga routine. Chris wants to explore the adjacent high valley, and Gordon offers to take “the girls” on an exploratory tour ski, as this will be Jennifer’s first time skiing cross-country. Above you see the merry adventurers as they prepare to launch.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2019, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

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