Mr. Banerjee's Wilderness

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I remember mentioning Subhankar Banerjee‘s name once before. This may have been in the days before Tiffinbox was in existence, when I slipped an occasional email through the SAJA Yahoo! Groups photojournalists forum.

Banerjee's name popped up again in my inbox, thanks to Blue Earth Alliance's most recent newsletter. BEA is a wonderful group which I urge all you documentary photographers to check out. For several years now they have played an important role, as an umbrella organization, to collect funds for freelance documentary work. It's the brainchild of Natalie Fobes and Phil Borges, two very compassionate photographers I have had the pleasure meeting when I lived in Seattle.

But back to Banerjee. Leave aside for a moment the fact that his images are absolutely beautiful. It's the activist in him that piques my interest. His work (you will read of more of this when you click the link below) convinced law makers in Congress to stall oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. His work apparently threatened those whose interests lie in plundering the wilderness. His work was censored by the Smithsonian and the resulting media attention only jolted his name and work into the limelight.

“For his relentless pursuit to protect the Arctic Refuge ecosystem and its native cultures he was awarded the first Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in November 2003. Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowships were established to help individuals who have demonstrated leadership on behalf of world cultural freedom, by promoting cultural diversity and strengthening cultural traditions and ties. The purpose of the Fellowship for Cultural Freedom is to encourage and support leaders in American and foreign communities to contemplate, reflect, write, and study. This $100,000 fellowship is given to Banerjee to continue his work in the Arctic Refuge and study other topics on social and environmental impacts of globalization. In addition the foundation gave a $400,000 grant to support his continuing educational outreach through additional exhibits and lectures around the country.”

His first book, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land was finally published in April 2003.

“Before Banerjee started this project he had not published a single photograph anywhere.” Inspired?

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land
By Subhankar Banerjee

With the eye of an artist and heart of an environmentalist Subhankar Banerjee set out to do a visual portrayal of the ecology and native cultures of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in March 2001. He came back to Seattle briefly in late May and returned to the Arctic with renewed enthusiasm after his project got sponsorship from the Blue Earth Alliance under the mentorship of Natalie Fobes, who advised Banerjee during the five month long planning of the project. Later in the year Helen Cherullo, publisher of The Mounatineers Books decided to publish a book with Banerjee and Smithsonian agreed to host a solo exhibit of his work. With all these to look forward to he returned to the Arctic again in March 2002 to continue shooting that lasted seven continuous months.

His first book, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land was finally published in April 2003. However, even before the book was officially released, it took on a political life of its own. Senator Barbara Boxer held up an advanced copy of Banerjee's book and urged all her colleagues, “I wish every member could have a chance to take a look at this beautiful book”, before voting on drilling for oil in this pristine land.

That day bipartisan Boxer-Chafee amendment to strike the language for oil drilling from the budget bill won by a narrow margin (52-48 votes) at the Senate. Banerjee's work became visible in Congress, that later resulted in Smithsonian to marginalize his exhibit. The exhibit was moved from the prominent rotunda to a downstairs gallery and all descriptive captions for the images completely expunged and Smithsonian attorneys sent off letters to Banerjee's publisher asking her to remove the Smithsonian name from the
book. This resulted in a national controversy that got tremendous attention from press and media. Stories came out in New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Seattle PI and other newspapers and magazines around the world.

This major media attention resulted in the California Academy of Sciences to recreate a new show of Banerjee's work that was hosted in a grand manner with all necessary contexts last year at the Academy in San Francisco (September December 2003). This Academy sponsored exhibit will travel around the country till end of 2007 visiting major museums in Albuquerque, Cambridge, Chicago, Seattle, Fairbanks and others. A separate show of his work sponsored by the Alaska Wilderness League and The Wilderness Society is currently on display for ten months at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Banerjee gave numerous lectures around the country last year to raise awareness about the arctic refuge. Many of his lectures were sold out audiences of over 800 attendees. CSPAN Book-TV televised his lecture numerous times last year in summer and fall. For his relentless pursuit to protect the Arctic Refuge ecosystem and its native cultures he was awarded the first Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in November 2003. Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowships were established to help individuals who have demonstrated leadership on behalf of world cultural freedom, by promoting cultural diversity and strengthening cultural traditions and ties. The purpose of the Fellowship for Cultural Freedom is to encourage and support leaders in American and foreign communities to contemplate, reflect, write, and study. This $100,000 fellowship is given to Banerjee to continue his work in the Arctic Refuge and study other topics on social and environmental impacts of globalization. In addition the foundation gave a $400,000 grant to support his continuing educational outreach through additional exhibits and lectures around the country.

Banerjee also received the 2003 Special Achievement Award from the Sierra Club. Banerjee will be giving lectures in twenty-five cities and he will have eight exhibits that will be hosted in sixteen cities in 2004.

Besides activism to help preserve the refuge, Banerjee also wanted to bring back photographs and his vision on photography that would inspire the next generation and push the field of photography forward. Museum curators have commented that he has taken Eliot Porter's vision to another level. In addition to natural history museums, the major art museums are now showing serious interest in his work.

Former New Yorker photography critic and current editor-in-chief of Interview, Ingrid Sischy, evaluated his work in an extensive story in the December 2003 issue of Vanity Fair:

“Banerjee's landscapes seem epic, and there is something about them that is haunting. His photographs have an authenticity, a gravitas, and a beauty that more rote imagery is without. One day Banerjee's work maybe seen as part of this legacy [19th Century greats such as Carleton Watkins and Timothy O'Sullivan]. When you see Banerjee's most memorable pictures, its not hardship that's evident but beauty. A nonformulaic beauty. He shows the beauty of ordinary scenes and of the passing of the seasons. He isn't afraid of what others might see as “a mess”. He finds grace in tangled-up branches and unruly weeds. They [Banerjee¹s photographs] are relevant to both art and science; in fact, their strength is that the two ways of understanding the world can¹t be untangled in these pictures.”

Commenting about his own work he wrote, “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an extremely remote land with very harsh climate. Very few people have ever visited this place besides the indigenous peoples who have lived there for thousands of years. The landscape is grand yet very simple and the existence of life is modest and fragile. The challenge I had as an artist was to portray this simplicity and fragility while maintaining the grandeur of the land. I chose simple compositions and almost no use of bold light to highlight the subtleties. Eliot Porter once wrote, “The wide blue sky, the big landscape, the mountain scene, the comprehensive views these I believe are best portrayed in black and white.” However, I believe I have tried to use color as a fundamental dimension to portray Comprehensive Views, just like Porter used color for Intimate Landscapes.”

The support from the Blue Earth Alliance and the seminar that he attended provided inspiration that took him on a lifelong journey. He still remembers the stories that Natalie Fobes shared during a BEA seminar about her Pacific Salmon Pacific People project, and her persistence to never give up. “Shooting From the Heart is the mantra she taught us all and it will always remain in my soul like a sacred chant”, says Banerjee. Before Banerjee started this project he had not published a single photograph anywhere.
“Dream really does come true, if you are willing to sacrifice and never give up.”