Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land

Photos by Foreword by

178 pages
Publisher: Braided River
ISBN: 978-0-89886-438-0
Published: Apr 2, 2003

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Description

2003 Banff Mountain Image Award Winner and 2004 Gold Independent Publisher Book Award in Environment, Ecology, and Nature

The most comprehensive, photographic documentation of the biodiversity and indigenous cultures of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
One hundred and twenty full-color photographs by author and photographer Subhankar Banerjee, winner of the prestigious Alaska Conservation Foundation Daniel Housberg Wilderness Image Award
Essays by Peter Matthiessen and David Allen Sibley, among others

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is America's Serengeti, comprising 19.8 million acres of land in the northeast corner of Alaska and adjoining Ivvavik and Vuntui National Parks in the Yukon Territory in Canada. Photographer Subhankar Banerjee, in collaboration with six essayists, presents a portrayal of a unique landscape made up of equal parts beauty and hazard. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last intact ecosystems on earth, is being impacted by forces that may change its existence forever: global warming and the encroachment of modern society through the potential for oil drilling.

Jimmy Carter, George Schaller, and Bill Meadows narrate the story with essays that delve into the history of the Refuge, the political battles -- past and present -- and the fragility of the ecosystem. Wildlife biologist Fran Mauer writes of the areas geological and geographical uniqueness while Debbie Miller describes the cultures of the Inupiat Eskimos and the Gwich'in Athabascan Indians. David Allen Sibley explores the prolific bird life and migrations at the refuge with an eye toward the delicately balanced ecology of the region. Peter Matthiessen, reflecting on his journey through the Refuge with Banerjee, passionately defends the need to preserve these lands and the people and the wildlife they shelter.

Visit the photographer's website at www.subhankarbanergee.org

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Photos by

Foreword by

Details

178 pages
Publisher: Braided River
ISBN: 978-0-89886-438-0
Published: Apr 2, 2003

Reviews

The scope of Banerjee's work is truly breathtaking.
— Trail & Timberline
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then, this book speaks volumes…Although the land is at the heart of current political debate, Banerjee goes beyond party lines to give a glimpse into a world experienced by few. His exquisite photos allow the voices of plants, animals, and indigenous people to be heard.
— E Magazine
Amazingly, it has taken a native of Calcutta, India, to bring home to the American people the jewel in our crown. And he has done a superb job. This book should be required reading of every senator, congressman, and president.
— The Explorers Journal
[Banerjee's] exquisite photos allow the voices of plants, animals and indigenous people to be heard, and make it impossible to consider this land as a barren expanse.
— E, The Environmental Magazine
Banerjee's book will either be a historical record of how the refuge once looked, or a vital part of the chain of events that saved the refuge for future generations to enjoy.
— The Oregonian
[Banerjee's] lush images of glaciers, polar bears, caribou, and lichens remind us how fragile these lands really are.
— Discover
What a grand and timely achievement. Banerjee has influenced the course of a political battle over whether to open the refuge to oil drilling. Essays by Peter Matthiessen and David Allen Sibley, among others, and a forward by Jimmy Carter, add depth and force. The talented people at The Mountaineers Books have produced an elegant, intriguing book with spectacular color photographs.
— Audubon Naturalist News
[Banerjee's] pictures of birds, bears, and sun-struck mountains of ice are beautiful, but what makes this book so valuable are the essays by nature writers, including Peter Matthiessen and George Schaller.
— St. Paul Pioneer Press, also ran in syndication
When you see Banerjee's most memorable pictures, it's not hardship that's evident but beauty. A non-formulaic beauty. Banerjee doesn't try to get perfect 'Hallmark' scenes. While he did shoot the most spectacular, neon-like image that I have ever seen, he isn't one to milk sunsets. Instead he shows the beauty of ordinary scenes and the passing of the seasons. He isn't afraid of what others might see as 'a mess.' He finds the grace in tangled-up branches and unruly weeds…Banerjee's landscapes seem epic, and there is something about them that is haunting.
— Vanity Fair
Through his photos, Banerjee memorializes a unique landscape of great scale…Roland Barthes described photographs as images that can only happen once, imploring us to look at a moment captured in time. ANWR, rendered so magisterially in Seasons of Life and Land, demands that we look now. If this great wilderness goes the way of the Everglades, the photographic record will be one of shame.
— Wildlife Conservation
[Banerjee's] startling beautiful pictures reveal the beauty of the people and frozen landscape. Just reading the book brings a chill even on a blistering hot day.
— Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel
The spectacular 120 photographs have the power to transport the viewer into the extraordinary beauty of this 'sacred place where all life begins'.
— Outdoors West
Seasons of Life and Land will surely become a classic of American environmental consciousness. It is impeccably researched, intelligently conceived, astonishingly observant and radiant with love for its subject.
— London Times Higher Education Supplement
It's hard to believe that this beautifully exceuted, passionate book about a nature preserve north of the Arctic Circle that is home to thousands of migrating caribou could well be a significant ecological publication. ... From a double rainbow arching over the taiga... to a rare red aurora borealis... this book is an eye-opening treasure.
— New York Newsday
Seasons of Life and Land serves as both a record of stunning, wild places and a reminder of just how much can be lost so quickly should even small amounts of oil resources be extracted.
— Dandelion
Banerjee…has done a masterful job of showing that the refuge is-year round-a rare and precious ecosystem, teeming with life that exists in a fine balance of nature.
— Winston-Salem (NC) Journal
Sometimes pictures have a chance to change history by creating a larger understanding of a subject, thus enlightening the public and bringing greater awareness to an issue. The book,Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, should offer those who see the Arctic refuge as a barren wasteland a chance to have second thoughts.
— Planet Jackson Hole
[The photographs] defy the administration's argument...that drilling would not disrupt the refuge because for most of the year it is an area of 'flat, white nothingness.' In the tradition of landscape photographers Ansel Adams and Eliot Porter, Banerjee's images of a densely feathered American dipper flitting in a pool of icy water, of the bleached bones of whales reaching out from a snow-covered cemetery, of a sky painted lipstick red by the Northern Lights, tell otherwise
— Los Angeles Times
This book contains gorgeous close-ups of wildflowers and spectacular panoramas of wilderness as far as the eye can see. There are breathtaking aerial shots of mountains, rivers and migratory routes-and there are gut-wrenching photos of the industrial sprawl at neighboring Prudhoe Bay…Seasons of Life and Land deserves a large and receptive readership.
— The Olympian
It's a spectacular tour of endangered wildlife, tremendous terrain, otherworldly skyscapes, and isolated Inuit villages. And it is arguably the most comprehensive-and potentially politically influential-visual chronicle of the refuge to date.
— National Geographic Adventure