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Title: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge : Seasons of Life and Land by Subhankar Banerjee ISBN: 0-89886-909-9 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: captures the essence and grandeur
Comment: I am struck not only by the photographs but also the essays that convey just a sprinkling of what the ANWR is really like. But, what a sprinkling. I have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the ANWR and many photographs are ones from places I haved hiked and people I have met. Many of the rivers shown are rivers I have been on. What I have not done is been there in the truly cold times and his photographs and words do great justice to those times. The drawbacks are few and perhaps it is nitpicking but there is a concentration of pictures taken on the Hula Hula. While the Hula Hula is a wonderful river to do, the Jago covers the heart of the calving grounds and the pictures there were in short supply. However, the pictures are inspiring and the only thing not captured is the sense of vastness that one gets setting foot in the ANWR. But, I have never seen a photograph that can capture that. For those who may never set foot in the ANWR, or even for those who have been there, this book is a must add to anyone's collection. The book does make me want to seek out the hot spring on the Okpilak River, however.
Kongakut, Icy Reef, Bernard Spit, Jago, Hula Hula, Kaktovik, Arctic Village, the bird life and animal life --all places I have been and things I have seen, and a wonderful book with which to revisit those places.
Rating: 4
Summary: why I want to see this book
Comment: The is not a true review: indeed, I have not yet recived the book for Amazon.
I just came home from a dinner with Peter Mattiessen at the University of Tulsa, at which he spoke passionately of the phyiscal and finacinal effort Mr. Banerjee undertook to create this work, the reaction in Congress to the book, the pressure upon the Smithsonian and the American Muesum of American History to quash display of Mr. Banerjee's photographs, and his personal fears of deportation or worse by the Justice Department under the Patriot Act. A most frightening portral of the reach real or reasonably feared of this Adminstration when an individual, spcially an alien, dares question its motive. As Senator Stevens(R)Alaska, chair of the Senate Appropriate committee was reported to say to his colleages after Banerjee's testimony, and the Senate voted 52-48 against drilling in ANWR, "I know who you are and you will pay".
To cause such a reaction--it must be worth having.
Rating: 3
Summary: Preaching to the Converted
Comment: It's not too often that a book of nature photographs gets to fuel a congressional debate or lead to the Smithsonian being accused of being politicized but this book has done that.
Subhankar Banerjee, an engineer from India, took these pictures because he wanted to move public opinion to save the coastal plain adjacent to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wild place. This book was displayed on the floor of Congress by a debating Senator who agreed with Banerjee. Shortly thereafter the Smithsonian, which had scheduled a showing of Banerjee's pictures in the museum's main hall, moved the pictures to a far less desirable location and cut the captions to almost nothing. Accusations of political tampering have been flying fast and furious since then.
There is little doubt that this is a book of advocacy. From the introduction by President Jimmy Carter to essays by the Pulitzer Prize winning nature writer Peter Matheson and bird artist Allen Sibley, among others, the book makes a plea for preservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with particular note of strong attacks on the refuge by forces supporting the petroleum industry.
The various essays describing travels in the refuge will be of interest to those who enjoy reading about trips through the great outdoors, although you have to be ready for a big dose of anti-oil rhetoric. However, I expect that no one who reads this book will be a strong supporter of the energy industry, so that much of the writing will be preaching to the converted.
I can be counted as supporting preservation of the refuge, and I'd love to give this book a high rating, but I thought there were far too many pages of essays and not enough pictures. And, ultimately I think this book must be judged by the author's photographs. Unfortunately the photos are of only of so-so quality.
Some of Banerjee's shots are spectacular, like those of herds of oxen against the midnight sun. Others are as subtle as the textures of the refuge itself, like the pictures of lichens growing on rocks. But most of the pictures are straight forward record shots with little sophistication. They provide information but not inspiration. Banerjee is not a great photographic artist. If that's what you want get Art Wofe's book of highly saturated, incredibly composed photographs, "Alaska". Wolfe's picture of a single Dall Sheep looks majestic. Banerjee's looks, well, moth-eaten. Banerjee's shot of a herd of Dall Sheep is a bunch of sheep in a green field. Wolfe's is an environmental photo of a herd amongst precipitous mountains.
If you want a book dedicated exclusively to the refuge, and you want to show support for the refuge, and it's not important that you have great pictures to inspire you, you may want this book. Otherwise, look elsewhere for great photography of the refuge.
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Title: Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges by Eric Jay Dolin, John Hollingsworth, Karen Hollingsworth ISBN: 1588341178 Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by Debbie S. Miller, Margaret Murie ISBN: 0882405179 Publisher: Alaska Northwest Books Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Last Wilderness: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by Kennan Ward, Robert Redford ISBN: 1930700032 Publisher: WildLight Press Pub. Date: 07 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: America's National Wildlife Refuges: A Complete Guide by Russell D. Butcher, Stephen E. Adair, Lynn A. Greenwalt, Mike Boylan, John Hollingsworth, Karen Hollingsworth, Dan Ashe ISBN: 1570983798 Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Pub Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Wood-Tikchik: Alaska's Largest State Park by Robert Glenn Ketchum, Bill Sherwonit ISBN: 1931788111 Publisher: Aperture Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $50.00 |
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