LAND–AS–HOME: ARCTIC AND DESERT SERIES
Subhankar Banerjee’s ongoing Arctic and Desert series simply address two things, home and food that land provides to humans and to all the other species with whom we share this earth. His next series will focus on forests of the Global South. With the three series moving along, he hopes to build a framework—land–as–home—of survival for all species on Earth.
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ARCTIC SERIES
Subhankar’s Arctic series began in 2000 with a desire to live with polar bears in the wild. Over the years his many romantic ideas were shattered, and his vision has since evolved into a visual exploration of the Arctic’s connection to larger global issues such as, resource wars, climate change, toxic migration, and human rights struggles of the northern indigenous communities. His ongoing collaboration with environmental organizations and the Gwich’in and Iñupiat communities of Arctic Alaska focus on a tradition of sustainable land use practices that are disappearing rapidly from industrialized societies. Subhankar’s Arctic photography includes several regions of the Arctic: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Teshekpuk Lake Wetlands, Utukok River Uplands, Kasegaluk Lagoon, Beaufort and Chukchi seas; Yukon province of Canada; and Sakha Republic of Siberia. Subhankar recently completed editing an anthology titled ARCTIC VOICES: RESISTANCE AT THE TIPPING POINT (New York: Seven Stories Press, June 19, 2012). In 2012, photographs from his Arctic series will be shown at the 18th BIENNALE OF SYDNEY in Sydney, Australia (June 27–September 16, 2012).
DESERT SERIES
Subhankar’s Desert series began in 2006 with a desire to know where he lives. Over the years he walked in about a five–mile radius around his suburban home in New Mexico. In the process he became a detective of the desert and realized that the desert ecosystem, the piñon–juniper woodland along with cholla cactuses supports an incredible diversity of wildlife and has also sustained indigenous communities over many millenia. During the first decade of the 21st century scientists started to define the piñon–juniper woodland as an old–growth forest. However, due to recent global warming the old–growth piñon forest in New Mexico is mostly dead—fifty five million piñons, 90% of all mature piños, New Mexico’s state tree died between 2001 and 2005. In 2011, his Desert series was introduced with a solo exhibition WHERE I LIVE I HOPE TO KNOW at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth (May 14–August 28), and in a group exhibition EARTH NOW: AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe (April 8–August 28). In 2012, work from his Desert series will be shown at the LANNAN FOUNDATION GALLERY in Santa Fe, New Mexico (April 28–July 15, 2012).