Customer Reviews

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land

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With the stunning pictures and essays, it's like you are there. It shows the beauty of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in winter and summer. The wildlife and native people are seen as they live their lives. The essays provide guided tours into the Arctic by six conservationists.

One thinks of the Arctic as all white. It is not, even in winter. The snow covered ground makes moose, grizzly, musk oxen, porcupine, willows, and many birds stand out. The ptarmigan changes plumage twice a year to blend into the two Arctic seasons. The sky can be brilliantly blue during the day, and green or red with the Aurora Borealis at night.

The summer brings a greater variety of color to the land and draws the migrating birds through our parts of the country to their nesting area in the Refuge. The Porcupine caribou herd is drawn to the Coastal Plain to give birth and to fatten up for the coming long winter. The pictures and essays tell the story of the people, polar and grizzly bears, the caribou, the musk oxen, a variety of smaller animals, and the large number of bird species that live all, or part of, their lives there.

The book has excellent maps. Some illustrate the migration paths of birds from North and South America, Asia, even Africa. Others show: caribou and bowhead whale migration routes; where the people live; and the major geological features.

Banerjee's pictures range from the broad expanse of mountains and rivers to the color and detail of the lichen on the rocks. I've learned much. One would have to spend many months in the Refuge to see what is in this book.

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.

Take a four season journey through the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and discover the great diversity of life that hallmarks this spectacular refuge. Subhanker Banerjee's photographs capture the wildlife, the people, and the landscape in a way that has not been done before. Essays by Peter Mathiessen, David Sibley, Fran Mauer are heartfelt and beautiful.

I went to the exhibit at the Smithsonian last week. Despite the political pressure to keep the pictures and the captions hidden from the public, the exhibit is inspirational and uplifting. Too bad the Smithsonian doesn't even have a sign to the exhibit, you have to search for it down in the basement. Get even with those who would keep you from seeing this book--buy it and decide for yourself if this place is worth protecting.

I bought this book because there was no other way to understand the photos that were on display at the Museum of Natural History. I was not alone; several people walked around Banerjee's exhibition with their books in hand. The curator had removed all descriptive labels, and the introductory plaque emphasized how small the Arctic refuge is compared to other such reserves throughout the country. The photos were mounted in a corridor leading to an elevator. It was poorly lit, and crowded with people passing through. It was in the back of the building, and hard to find. It was a startling contrast to the Eliot Porter exhibition in one of the main exhibition halls above the ground floor. That exhibition was well designed, well described, and included copies of books like "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, hardly a neutral text. The only message I could take away was that environmentalism is "safe" to the Smithsonian curators only when it's at least 30 or 40 years old.

The treatment of Banerjee's photos was so troublesome that Congress held hearings on the matter. But no news report could compare to the feeling of being there, near the elevator.

I took the book home with me, trying to understand whether or not the poor installation was due to poor material or to poor museum administration. Banerjee's photos, and the stories and writings around the photos, are greatly compelling. The story of how hard he worked to get those photos, and of how in the process, he became a better photographer, stood out to me. I highly recommend the book, but I hope I have helped some enthusiasts know just how controversial the notion of natural beauty can be, and how the Smithsonian does play politics. Apparently, reading Banerjee's book can be considered an act of protest.

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.

The photographs are stunning. It tells the story of a place that the proponents of oil drilling in the Refuge called "white nothingness." Banerjee proves how wrong they were. The photographs have upset the White House or the Republicans so much that they somehow managed to drain a scheduled exhibition of Banerjee's work at the Smithsonian of all its value. See the New York Times article of 2 May 2003, p. A22 This utterly fascinating book deserves extensive circulation on its merits. In light of the administration's attempt to suppress this work at the Smithsonian it is an act of defiance to see that it has maximum circulation!

As an occasional visitor and fan of the high Arctic, I found the photographs of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in this book to be among the most beautiful images of the Arctic that I have seen -- whether with my own eyes or in pictures. The photographs of the land and wildlife as well as the accompanying essays by the photographer and some of the leading nature writers of our day, all speak eloquently for full protection of this great wilderness. In particular, that the controversial Coastal Plain area should be granted wilderness status and thus permanently protected from industrial development.

In my opinion, this book is environmental advocacy in its finest form. As always, advocacy is controversial. Another "reviewer" of this book, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is an avid supporter of oil drilling in the Refuge said in a Senate speech "This book is pure propaganda."

Developing and preserving the more than 500 National Wildlife Refuges have been contentions political issues since Theodore Roosevelt established the first one in 1903. There have been continual battles between using the Refuges for activities such as mining, military exercises, grazing, and use of motorized vehicles and their primary purpose of protecting wildlife. In that sense, the ongoing ANWR debate is "simply" the latest and best known of a long series of struggles between development and conservation in the Refuges. (The recently published Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges contains an excellent account of this history.)

The case for development can be quantified in terms of dollars and cents, jobs, and taxes to be collected. By contrast, the case for conservation is impossible to quantify. It depends on softer almost spiritual arguments -- demonstrating the value of natural beauty; understanding that preservation of the diversity of all species is almost certainly crucial to the preservation of our own, and preserving for future generations small portions of the planet untrammeled by man.

Reconciling these objectives for the ANWR is ultimately a matter of judgement for it's guardians -- the American people and their elected representatives. To decide wisely we need to be informed about the land and the issues that surround it. Thus I encourage you to buy (or borrow from your library) this important book, read it, and share with your fellow citizens what you have learned.

The entire US Congress should read this book before voting to allow oil drilling in ANWAR. The pictures alone make this book worth owning. I am ordering another copy for my daughter in Boston and will share my copy at a family reunion in April. It will be an important part of my extensive library.

A reader from VA, USA, wrote:

"Get even with those who would keep you from seeing this book--buy it and decide for yourself if this place is worth protecting." I say "get even more even! Buy it for your friends and relatives. I know I did -- just what Mom wanted for Mother's Day!"

My wife has been living in Kaktovik since August. She insisted that we purchase "Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land" because of the accuracy and beauty, of the photos and descriptions. When she returns to the "lower 48", at the end of May, she'll use the book often as she shares her adventure with others.