Weekly Post, Welcome to SUZHOU, 1985 - to the present by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Welcome to Suzhou, 1985 - to the present by Robert Glenn Ketchum

During the reign of Mao (1949-1976), China was a closed country. China in the 1980’s was 80% rural, with no outside visitors, particularly from the West. When China opened to travelers, the Chinese government placed severe limitations on who was allowed to enter the country. These photographs are a continuation of other ongoing blog threads of the first glimpses into China in the mid-1980’s by world-renowned Conservation Photographer 
Robert Glenn Ketchum.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Welcome to Suzhou, 1985 - to the present, #151

Suzhou #151:  As this image ends this blog, I post it because I have photographed and written about a 35-year period of extraordinary change in Suzhou of which I have been lucky enough to witness. Yet, for all the changes, as I have tried to humorously point out, many things remain the same, or at least similar. When I look out across the city from my hotel room , I see that it IS very different, but there is also NO DOUBT that it is very Chinese. This nation did not have international style imposed upon it, but rather it took international style and reconfigured it in a Chinese way. Watching this transpire, and growing to understand it was a great gift to me as a person and an artist. The exchange with an embroidery guild that brought me to Suzhou not only created an unusual Chinese-American collaboration that redefined Suzhou-style embroidery, but it enriched my life in ways I never anticipated. For me, this exchange transcended the art we created and reformed the life I was creating and my view of the world. I hope my Chinese colleagues feel the same after putting up with me for all this time. I would also like to thank the city and citizens of Suzhou for making me feel welcome and comfortable, even though I clearly looked strange to them, AND I stuck my camera in their face. I will miss these travels. I am SO grateful to have done them. I will now sign off from this blog with another billboard quotation:  “Joyance Prevails, Dreams Are Approaching."

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2016, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd #China #Suzhou

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The G2 Gallery: National Parks of Alaska and Hawaii

The G2 Gallery:  National Parks of Alaska and Hawaii
January 14, 2017 - March 18, 2017

Amon Carter Museum, "American Photographs, 1845 to Now”

"TWO POSSIBLE CHOICES FOR THE FUTURE” 1984
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2016, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

I would like to thank Assistant Curator of Photographs, Joy Jeehye Kim, PhD, and the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, TX for including the above image in their current exhibit, "American Photographs, 1845 to Now.” These 6-panels of imagery were created during the two years I spent in the Hudson River Valley working on a commission given to Stephen Shore, William Clift, and myself by the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund. Published as the Aperture monograph, “The Hudson River and the Highlands,” I also republished this work in greater length and detail in this blog: The Hudson River and the Highlands

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:

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Social Media by @LittleBearProd

Amon Carter Museum, "American Photographs, 1845 to Now”

2016 Gift Wrapping Ideas

My Favorite Things: Sundance Catalog

Legends Of The Forest Coat
Sundance Catalog Item No. 66107, $548.00

A unique embroidered boiled wool coat with style straight out of a fairy tale.

The Lowell Thomas Award 2016

2016 Lowell Thomas Awardees "Celebrating the Legacy of Open Spaces"

Left-to-Right:  Kristine Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway, Laly Lichtenfeld, Martin von Hildebrand. 

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2016, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

Last year I was awarded The Lowell Thomas Award as a "Visionary of Conservation" by The Explorers Club of New York. I just attended the 2017 awards “Celebrating the Legacy of Open Spaces” in Santa Barbara, California, and I was VERY excited to see two old friends as this year’s 2016 Lowell Thomas recipients. Above from right to left, Martin von Hildebrand, Laly Lichtenfeld, Rick Ridgeway, and Kristine Tompkins. I have known Rick and Kris for many years through my relationships with Patagonia, The North Face, and the remarkable work they have both done IN the environment, AND FOR the environment. Google all four of these amazing people and see what VERY significant contributions they have made to worldwide conservation.

Weekly Post, Where It All Began: LIMEKILN CREEK by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Where It All Began:  Limekiln Creek by Robert Glenn Ketchum

In 1967, I discovered Limekiln Creek on the Big Sur Coast in California. Among those redwoods, I had an epiphany as a young artist. As a photographer, most of the skills I would use, I would learn there. Many years later in a mature career, I helped the American Land Conservancy acquire this property for the California State Park system. This is the story of a very personal place.

Monday, October 31, 2016

Where It All Began:  Limekiln Creek, #44

Where It All Began - Limekiln Creek, #44:  This is a preface to this blog and the last post. In discovering AND then returning to Limekiln, I was inspired to change the direction of my work, and to greatly improve the quality of my photography - these decisions affected my life. Simultaneously I also had other important influences. My parents began leasing a house in Sun Valley (ID), from which some of my earliest published images were created ( SEE MY BLOG about the Decker Flats Climbing & Frisbee Club ). Then in transit to Sun Valley for a visit, as with Limekiln, I randomly discovered an amazing place in the desert that became to body of work, STONED IMMACULATE, a new blog that will begin next week in this spot. The above image is Paul Caponigro's "Apple, New York" 1964, or so it was titled when first published in Aperture magazine. At UCLA, a Robert Heinecken assignment had each of us choose a photographer "outside" of "our genre" and prepare a report/lecture with slides for a class presentation. Although I was "leaning" toward an interest in landscape, I still thought it less exciting than my experimental, hand-colored work, and Caponigro's work, which lacked the drama of Ansel Adams, seemed especially "quiet." I chose him because I viewed him boring and thought I would make that my lecture point, BUT the more I studied his images, the more I grew to understand what he saw. Then there was the final image, the endpiece of the publication. When presenting to the class, I said this was a great final image because it suggested he was doing "newer, more experimental work," and Heinecken asked, "How's that?" I responded that most his other images were landscapes, but this one of the night sky seemed more adventurous. Uniformly the class mumbled oddly, and then my friend, Bob Jenkins, spoke up and said, "What are you smoking, man? THAT is an apple." Having NOT read the image title, I missed that detail, but once he said it, I could see it. In fact, I could still see BOTH. This duality of being a "straight" photograph AND ALSO of "another world entirely" would become a subtext of my work for the rest of my life. In telling that story to workshop students once, I did not notice that Caponigro had come into the back of the classroom. After speaking, I took questions, and the last hand up was his. When he rose, I knew him, so I introduced him to the class. Paul said he was glad to hear that story and know the image affected me in that way, AND then he said I should tell Heinecken that "it WAS the night sky." He has since changed the title of this image to "Galaxy Apple."

photograph(s) © copyright, JOHN PAUL CAPONIGRO, 2016, @LittleBearProd, #LittleBearProd, ALC (@american_land), Monterey Pop Festival (@MontereyPopFest)

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The G2 Gallery Exhibit, " 100 Years of National Parks: The West"

If you have not done so, please come to The G2 Gallery in Venice, California and enjoy the exhibit of western national parks in celebration of their 100th Anniversary.

NRDC & IUCN in Politico - #NoPebbleMine

Since the International Union for the Conservation of Nature @IUCN has recommended protecting southwest AK and Bristol Bay from the industrial development of the Pebble mine, Joel Reynolds, @NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), and I want to be sure our political leaders are aware of their resolution, so yesterday, this ad dropped in POLITICO.

Contact President Obama and the @EPA and tell them now is the time to act to permanently protect this remarkable ecosystem and the invaluable fishery. Now THE WORLD really is watching!

~Robert Glenn Ketchum

NRDC at the IUCN World Conservation Congress - #NoPebbleMine

Working with my good friend, Joel Reynolds and his amazing staff at @NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), who hosted a reception for the International Union for Conservation of Nature @IUCN World Conservation Congress attendees in Hawaii...