Robert Glenn Ketchum Review

The Photographs
These photos are taken with medium format film showing amazing vistas and landscapes taken from the air and on the ground. Ketchum puts you in his shoes. From tundra showing bright fall colors to meandering rivers, each view is more beautiful than the last. Availble in coffee table books as well as prints, these photos make me wonder why I am spending my days in a place less beautiful and they reaffirm my desire to experience Alaska, but that is only one piece of how Ketchum uses his art.

The Lecture
The lecture was broad interest and well planned. Ketchum, an excellent speaker, began with a history of landscape photography in what became our national parks, from the time of carrying glass negatives hundreds of miles by burro, through the Ansel Adams period and up to the digital age. This was done very quickly with just a few examples of important works and then he moved on to his own work.

Ketchum began as a roadie photographing rock bands and colorizing the photos for a psychedelic effect, but soon got caught up in landscape photography. He had an eye for beauty and looked largely at color rather than taking an ecosystem perspective. Yet, he photographed whole story including the ugly. In his first funded work this set him apart, got him published and helped him to preserve precious lands. Ketchum discussed his environmental work as he showed photographs taken in Alaska (and other places). Beside gorgeous primeval old growth forest shots he placed photographs of the dried stumps left over from clear cutting in National lands. These trees were clear cut to produce pulp for the Asian market, a program that was not economically profitable. Because it was economically unfeasible, it received a 50 million dollar government subsidy to keep it going. What that means is that in an extremely rare and unique ecosystem, a forest of trees thousands of years old, they cut timber by an extremely destructive method to make paper in Asia. Because the trees were so far from the market, the cost of production was too high to support the business, so our government subsidized it to keep it going. Ketchum's work was quite influential in stopping this fiscal nonsense and moving more toward sustainable and profitable businesses like fishing and recreation. His pictures were worth many legislative words.

The Activist
Ketchum is currently working to preserve areas in southwest Alaska, an area that has received less attention as more focus has been put on the threat of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. He showed us the breathtaking views of the land, told us of the thriving recreation and fisheries business and shared maps showing the scope of a proposed copper mine. These things and more information about them can be seen on his web-page listed below.

The Embroidery
Toward the end of his lecture Ketchum brought us back to the beginning in two ways. For the first he showed what appeared to be photograph from the beginning of the slide show. However, it was an embroidery painstakingly reproduced in silk by Chinese artisans. These artisans work for Souzou Embroidery. The collaboration began through a cultural exchange with UCLA. The following night this work was on display at Lumiere Gallery and the real thing is amazing. The play of light and colors and the authenticity of the reproduction was fascinating. One particular airphoto had open mesh space for the meanders in the river. The effect when back-lit was perfect. Ketchum brought us full circle with the embroidery in another way. His nature shots are undoctored, but some of his original work was colorized. He has recently returned to adding color to some of his more playful work, with mirroring and special effects he has colorized some work that has nature as its base. These works are also available as embroidery. More can be seen at http://www.suembroidery.com. A few minutes on this site will show you that custom work is available and it is faithful reproduction of the original media that is provided. Having seen this first hand, I can tell you that the workmanship is impeccable and if you don't like the finished product it is likely because of the media provided.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

http://www.robertglennketchum.com