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Thursday, November 9, 2023

Fishfarms: Russia. Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977 by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Fishfarms:  Russia

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




Thursday, November 9, 2023

Fishfarms:  Russia, Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #5
Russia #5:  
As the official car in which Elisabeth Mann Borgese and I are being driven into Moscow gets closer to city center, the “neighborhoods” where people live, give way to the dramatic architecture at the heart of the capitol. Many buildings built during the Stalin era, were designed to be ornately impressive, AND of notable scale. Our hotel is to be such a place, and we are informed that the location above is similar. It has a great ballroom where we will be hosted at a huge dinner, a few evenings from now. Against the morning sky it all seems a little like Gotham to me, but our new “friends” speak good English, know Elisabeth well, and seem very congenial, so I continue to shoot “discreetly,” and we motor on, soon to pass-by Red Square.


photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2023,
@RbtGlennKetchum @RobertGKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
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Thursday, September 21, 2023

Fishfarms:  Russia, Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #4
Russia #4:  
Having arrived, and survived, Moscow airport in the pre-dawn hours of the day, Elisabeth and I are now in a car with various friends and officials headed to our hotel. I am surreptitiously taking pictures from the car as we drive along because I have been advised to be “discreet.” It is early spring of 1977 and Moscow still has snow. It is the Cold War Soviet Union, and it is cold. As we draw closer to the city, housing density increases and seems familiarly “European” to me, EXCEPT for the dramatic wall murals that appear with some regularity. Although I cannot read them, it is clear that most promote the Russian worker, and the work ethic. I think “Orwell”. Good graphics though, and I am a big fan of red as a dramatic color. Things begin to change, however, while our ride continues ever deeper into the heart of Moscow, particularly the scale of the architecture.


photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2023,
@RbtGlennKetchum @RobertGKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
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Thursday, September 14, 2023

Fishfarms:  Russia, Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #3
Russia #3:  
Elisabeth Mann Borgese is a friend of mine, and a respected author, who is working on a new book about fishfarming for Abrams Books. She is going to go around-the-world collecting research, and she wants me to travel with her to take pictures. England and France are the extent of my foreign travel experience, and If I go with her, my journey would start in Switzerland, then Russia, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong/China, Japan, and lastly back in the US, Hawaii. My family is concerned for my health and safety. My photography community friends think I am making a bad career choice because it is “commercial” work. Companies, however, recognize my opportunity and fully support me. Nikon and Olympus give me state of the art cameras and lenses; Vivitar provides a great strobe system; and, Pelican gives me a beautiful, waterproof, locking aluminum case. Along with that gear, I pack 150 rolls of film, get a bunch of visa’s, take A LOT of inoculations, and I am off. I fly LA to NY, change planes, then on to Zurich overnight, arriving there at dawn. Elisabeth has instructed me to have a cab bring me to her father’s family home, on a beautiful peninsula that extends into Lake Zurich. This was the home of Thomas Mann. I will recover here for two days, and then she and I will head for Moscow to begin our work. So far, so good!


photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2023,
@RbtGlennKetchum @RobertGKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
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Thursday, August 3, 2023

Fishfarms: Russia, Forming My World View through Aquaculture in 1977, #1
Russia #1:  
I graduated from UCLA in 1970, and in 1971, spent a year attending the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, learning to shoot with large format cameras, and print color. My longtime friend from high school and summers in Hawaii, Sam Scranton, ( posts #7, #12, #33-#38 ) went to UCSB, and began working as a property manager for Elisabeth Mann Borgese, an internationally known and respected author, philosopher, and politician. Elisabeth had a sprawling home on the beach in Montecito, and she had four dogs (who could play the piano). She also traveled a great deal, spending time writing at her family home in Switzerland, and in Malta, where she directed the International Ocean Institute. Sam took care of the CA home and the dogs, and as we were old surfing buddies, and there was a great break right in front of the house, many days after classes at Brooks, I would come down to the beach and we would go surfing. At some point in those visits, I met Elisabeth, and she liked me right away because I was a dog-lover. When she was around, there were many daily walks on the beach with the “pack,” and I often joined. Elisabeth grew comfortable with my presence, so I was always welcome at her house. I also joined in many dinners. She served as a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions when she was in Santa Barbara, and mealtime conversations ranged from political world views, to sexual politics, conservation, and, her favorite, in particular, the OCEAN - ocean law, ocean management, oceans as a resource, oceans as habitat. They were always interesting evenings.


photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2023,
@RbtGlennKetchum @RobertGKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:
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