After taking several months off from the darkroom to focus my energy in some new and exciting directions, I’ve recently started printing some of the other material created during my residency at the Wrangell Mountains Center. Even though Stories Fading Fast was built as my MFA Thesis Project, I made it clear at my Final Review that I intended to continue developing the series over the course of the next few years – and so, after taking off nearly a year from the project, I’ve started slowly picking it back up while working on two new projects at the same time. My residency at WMC this past August was an excellent opportunity to create in a truly inspiring environment while having the flexibility to explore Kennecott’s iconic mining buildings over the course of 10 days.

The above image, captured in the Kennecott Concentration Mill, looks over the expansive glacial moraine past the confluence of the Root and Kennicott (yes, there’s a spelling difference) Glaciers. While I was staying in McCarthy, I was lucky enough to connect with a National Park Ranger that was more than happy to give me a behind-the-scenes tour of the mine, allowing me to slow down and take two rolls of composite images for my series. Although they originally only promised a brief 45-minute tour, we ended up spending nearly three and a half hours scouring multiple buildings for over half a dozen perfect compositions. Being led around by such a passionate and knowledgeable historian, I was able to ask all sorts of random mechanical questions about the inner-workings of the mine and get some truly fascinating and detailed answers.

…. I say “perfect compositions” – and, perhaps, it is more accurate to say that they were perfect at that time. This image, in particular, just doesn’t have the same feeling that it did when I took the image – and so I’m hesitant to call it a success. Adjusting to post-graduate series development has been challenging, as I am more aware than ever that I relied on that network of two dozen peers to routinely critique my work and assist in series development.  Now that I usually serve as judge and jury, I find myself – more often than not – being much more critical of my work than I should.  In this case, however, I’m still hesitant – this image may still find itself in the discard pile.

On the other hand, post-graduate development of Stories Fading Fast has allowed me to revisit images that were previously set aside. This image from three years ago was ignored because there was never an opportunity to pair the image with a diptych, like the rest of my series imagery.  Captured hundreds of miles north of McCarthy in Wiseman, above the Arctic Circle, I always was reluctant to leave this image behind for many reasons:

Stories Fading Fast set out to capture the stories of the miners that tamed the Last Frontier – unlike the stories of London and Service that immortalized and romanticized larger-than-life characters that embodied the true Yukon Spirit, actual history was not kind to the small-time miner, often glossing over the accomplishments of the real men that defined the Alaska Gold Rush.  The grave of Joseph Coxy Brown in Wiseman’s Pioneer Cemetery, in many ways, represents this: even though the digital age has opened massive historical archives to a vast global audience, nothing remains of Mr. Brown’s life.  No stories, no obituaries, no pictures – nothing save for a online database of the graves in a tiny village north of the Arctic Circle. Incorporating that narrative element in my series is necessary, I believe – and so, when I stumbled upon Kennecott’s cemetery, I was hopeful to find an image to pair with my Wiseman shot:

I’m still rummaging through images created during my stay at the Wrangell Mountains Center – and I hope to share even more images with you soon.  Please feel free to offer critique, suggestions or comments below – I love to hear what you have to say!