Museum special exhibit features ANWR photographs

Submitted by Kerynn Fisher
Phone: (907) 474-6941
06/16/06

In March 2001, physicist-turned-photographer Subhankar Banerjee set out on a two-year trek to photograph the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge through all four seasons.

This summer, the results of his journey will be displayed at the University of Alaska Museum of the North in the special exhibit "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land." The exhibit, featuring 49 of Banerjee’s large-scale photographs, opens Saturday, June 17 and runs through Sunday, Sept. 10.

Crisscrossing the Arctic Refuge with Inupiat guide and friend Robert Thompson, Banerjee covered more than 4,000 miles on foot and by raft, kayak and snowmachine during his photographic journey, capturing images of polar bears, musk oxen, the rare buff-breasted sandpiper and dozens of other arctic species. Banerjee also spent time in Arctic Village, a Gwich’in Athabascan community, and Kaktovik, an Inupiat Eskimo community. Images of life in those villages, both neighboring the refuge, are included with the exhibit.

Banerjee’s work has been displayed in solo exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History and the California Academy of Sciences and featured in publications including Discover, Newsweek, Outside, Outdoor Photographer and Vanity Fair. The current exhibit, organized by the California Academy of Sciences, has been touring the country since late 2003. The Fairbanks showing is the exhibit’s only Alaska venue and is supported in part by the City of Fairbanks Hotel-Motel Tax Fund regrant by the Fairbanks Arts Association.

Essays by Peter Matthiessen, George Schaller, David Allen Sibley, William H. Meadows and Terry Tempest Williams, as well as Fairbanks residents Debbie S. Miller and Fran Mauer, accompany Banerjee’s images in the companion book to the exhibit. Also titled Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, the book is available in the Museum Store for $29.95 soft cover and $39.95 hard cover. His images are also featured in the newly released Arctic Wings: Birds of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, available in the Museum Store for $27.95 soft cover and $39.95 hard cover. More information about Subhankar Banerjee and his work is available online at www.wwbphoto.com/banerjee.htm.

Admission to the special exhibit is included in the museum’s general admission price: $10 for adults, $9 for seniors, $5 for youth 7-17 and free for children 6 and under. Museum members also receive free admission. The museum’s summer hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Information on the museum’s programs and exhibits is available at (907) 474-7505 and online at www.uaf.edu/museum.

CONTACT: Kerynn Fisher, University of Alaska Museum of the North communications coordinator, at (907) 474-6941 or (907) 378-2559 or via e-mail at k.fisher@uaf.edu.

Note to editors: High-resolution images from the exhibit are available. Subhankar Banerjee will be in Fairbanks and available for in-person interviews mid-July. Contact Kerynn Fisher for more information.