Arts and Entertainment

Splendor of Alaska's beauty captured in new photo book

Endless Alaska Journey

By John Schwieder (Self published, 180 pages, 2014, $49.95)

Delving into the work of Anchorage-based photographer John Schwieder is a passage into the immense beauty of Alaska. An experienced outdoorsman, he came to his art at a later age than most, but he's made up for lost time with two volumes of remarkable photography that capture landscapes and wildlife from across the full breadth of the state.

Schwieder's new collection, "Endless Alaska Journey," follows up an earlier coffee table book and shows considerable growth over the already impressive skills he demonstrated in that volume. He notes in his introduction that he spent 20 years in Alaska exploring its wilderness before he ever picked up a camera and began seriously recording what he encountered. It appears to have been vital training time. Without the lens between himself and his surroundings, he learned first what to look for, and only afterward came back to capture it.

Even then, the perfect photograph can involve far more effort than most would willingly endure. In his end notes, Schwieder says he exhausted numerous trips seeking the shot found on the book's cover, in which a bull moose is mirrored in a kettle pond near Wonder Lake, with Denali in all its glory rising up in the background. The spectacular and long-sought image only hints at what is contained within.

Moose, bears, lynx and more

The photographs found here are collected geographically, beginning, like many tours of Alaska, in Southeast and wending westward and northward, culminating in the Arctic. Along the way readers are treated to mountains, glaciers, rivers, roiling seas, sprawling tundra and the land, marine and avian creatures that inhabit these often-forbidding locales.

Most animals strongly associated with Alaska are found here. A mother moose is seen gently nuzzling a newborn calf taking its first steps. Bears brown, black and polar stroll through these pages. Three wolves rest atop a ridge in Katmai National Park, quietly taking stock of their surroundings. In one of the most memorable shots, a lone lynx stares into the camera with an impenetrable Mona Lisa expression on its face. And although it has been done so often as to become nearly cliche, Schwieder includes a fine shot of a salmon leaping from a river to its doom in the mouth of a waiting brown bear.

Offshore, a young Cook Inlet beluga whale smiles slyly toward the camera. A reclining walrus stares into the lens like a beloved dog gazing longingly at its person. A playful sea otter floats on its back in Prince William Sound. A humpback whale breaches. A chinook salmon nears the end of its spawning journey.

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While he doesn't identify himself as a birder, it's clear from this collection that Schwieder pays close attention to winged creatures. One of the most eye-catching images is a close-up side view of a black oystercatcher in Glacier Bay National Park. Its red beak and red-rimmed yellow eye are starkly set off against the bird's black and gray colors and the muted green of the surrounding flora.

Elsewhere, tundra swans, snowy owls and eiders are found in the Arctic. A tiny redpoll, one of nature's true survivors, rests on a branch during a snowfall, its blood-red forehead capturing the reader's eye in the chilly winter scene. In a lake, baby loons sit atop one parent's back while the other passes them food with its beak. And, of course, Alaska's most ubiquitous bird, the raven, puts in an appearance.

The most amazing bird photograph is a dizzying two-page spread of hundreds of migrating sandpipers bursting into the sky, the background barely visible through the mass of flying bodies.

Wonders large and small

Not content with wildlife, Schwieder also points his lens at the landscapes that sprawl across the state. A stunning two-page spread shows the spectrum of red colors filling the sky over Bristol Bay at sunrise. A panorama of Reed Lake and the surrounding Talkeetna Mountains will leave readers busily planning their next hikes. The craggy upsweep of the Brooks Range is seen from the sky. A pair of black-and-white renderings of Denali deliberately evoke the work of Ansel Adams. Surging waters strike the coast of Resurrection Bay as a mountain rises behind. A rainbow arcing downward onto the tundra of Denali National Park is easily missed, owing to the brilliant fall colors that dominate the foreground.

Schwieder pays close attention to the smaller aspects of plant and animal life as well, telling us in his notes that "though the big landscapes and wildlife get most of the attention in Alaska, there are countless small worlds to encounter." Thus we meet a short-tailed weasel, a pik and a porcupine, get close-up looks at flowers and leaves, witness deep blue glacial ice and in a pair of remarkable close-ups, view snowflakes that seem more like sculpted glass than frozen water.

The notes in the back mix explanations about how particular images were captured with brief but informative lessons on Alaska biology, geology, climatology and glaciology. The author has done his homework. He also offers tips for aspiring photographers.

At the close of the book Schwieder makes his one vocal plea for conservation. "Wild Alaska's continued existence is at the discretion, grace and humility of humans. I pray Alaska remains a beacon, a geography of hope, not only for wide-eyed wilderness seekers but for all future generations, as proof that humans truly believe that all living creatures are connected."

It's a poignant and necessary call, but to look at Schwieder's magnificent work is to grasp this point implicitly. This book is a good choice for holiday shopping lists and personal wish lists alike.

David A. James is a Fairbanks-based writer and critic.

David James

David A. James is a Fairbanks-based freelance writer, and editor of the Alaska literary collection “Writing on the Edge.” He can be reached at nobugsinak@gmail.com.

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