View from Rosie's, Ketchikan America, 20th century

The Tongass: Alaska's Vanishing Rain Forest

View from Rosie's, Ketchikan

1986

Robert Glenn Ketchum

(American, 1947-)

America, 20th century

silver dye bleach process color print (Cibachrome)

Image: 47.6 x 58.9 cm (18 3/4 x 23 3/16 in.); Paper: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in.); Matted: 76.2 x 81.3 cm (30 x 32 in.)

Gift of the Advocacy Arts Foundation 1995.188

Impression: 2

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Many of Robert Glenn Ketchum’s photographs share an incredible surface beauty and a richness of color and detail that draw viewers into the composition before they realize that something is amiss. In this image, taken in the Alaskan city of Ketchikan, the outward gaze of a deer head hanging from the wall is what invites the viewer into the scene. It is only after absorbing the richly detailed living room, with its many plants and fur-covered chair, that the viewer notices its contrast to nature’s depletion outside the window. This photograph was one of a series of pieces that contributed to Ketchum’s work on behalf of timber management reform, influential in Congress’s signing into law the Tongass Timber Reform Act, which gave protected status to one million acres of Alaskan rain forest. In acknowledgement of his efforts, Ketchum—already known for his environmental activism—was awarded a 1991 United Nations Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award.