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, January 15, 2021
The Daze of My Life: Robert Glenn Ketchum, An Autobiography #235
Daze, #235:
Daze, #235:
Having a helicopter aboard to shoot from on daily flightsees, was a godsend for my work, and provided many astounding images for the resulting Aperture book, and traveling exhibit, but near the end of our trip, one more unusual opportunity to work from the air occurred. The last village we stopped in before leaving Canada for Greenland, was Pond Inlet on Baffin Island. We had come through the Northwest Passage in record time, and had time to kill before heading home. By coincidence, while ashore in Pond Inlet, a mail/cargo plane landed, and Bill Simon got a brilliant new idea. He wanted the two pilots to fly us to the North Pole. They explained that was not possible because of the distance, but they did say they were doing a run to several towns and villages, including Eureka Base, one of the northernmost outposts in the Arctic, and they would take us along if we wanted to do that. It would be a two-day trip, and we would overnight at Eureka. We would also have some time to flightsee. Everybody wanted to do it, so we were off the next morning. Of course, I dragged my Pentax 645 camera along hoping to take pictures through whatever plane windows were available, but I was disappointed to discover that the plexiglass portals of this old cargo plane were badly scratched and hazy. In the early part of our flight, I was depressed by this, and the sling chairs we all sat in were very uncomfortable, so I got up to walk around and stretch. At the back of the plane, where the entry door was located, I discovered that the door featured a 20” circular, window of clear, unblemished glass. I had to stand to shoot, but the view was astonishing, and the clarity of the glass was as though it was not there at all. The 2-days of photographing through this window were tiring because I was standing for hours at a time, but because we were much higher in the air than when I was in the helicopter, the perspective of the landscape was more encompassing and vast. This was an unexpected blessing upon the work I was doing, and the results were phenomenal. If you would like to know more about this adventure, click here.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2021
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