Inupiat photographer Brian Adams is the featured First Friday artist in November at the Alaska Native Arts Foundation in downtown Anchorage. His exhibition is titled "I Am Alaskan," a name his exhibit shares with a book of photography he released in October.
This First Friday is also his official book-release signing, and the opening reception features recent photos in which he focuses on ordinary and extraordinary portraiture capturing each person at their best in their element. Adams strives to photograph his subjects in a place of natural emotion and that reveals the essence of their normal surroundings.
As Adams puts it:
"My work on Alaska Native villages extends beyond portraiture and seeks to document decaying surroundings pitted in some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Instead of focusing on mere destruction, I choose to show the evidences of life in the villages; a lone basketball hoop awaiting the summer in a world of ice, a proud mother with her baby on a wintery walk, a well-intentioned civilization at the edge of the earth crumbling into a tumultuous and frighteningly beautiful sea. Just like beauty, ugliness exists in the eye of the beholder; survival is never only beautiful, it is a struggle as well. But, just as the sky meets the horizon and the water meets the earth, the struggle is the point of departure. The beauty is what spurs us on to change."
Adams specializes in environmental portraiture and medium-format photography. His work has been featured in well-known national and international publications, such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, the Guardian, the Observer, and many others.
His work documenting Alaska Native villages has been showcased in galleries across the U.S., including the Anchorage Museum, the Alaska House Gallery in New York and the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts in Princeton, N.J.
Adams' work has won several awards, including Honorable Mentions in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Rarefied Light competitions judged by David Hilliard, Keith Carter and Cig Harvey, respectively. Adams continues to work on future projects.
On why Adams likes photography as a medium, he said:
"Photography is a way to show someone the fraction of a second where there exists the truth of expression. The majority of my photographic undertakings have been portraiture, focusing on both the ordinary and extraordinary, the serious and the playful, all the while attempting to capture each subject in his/her "best." It is my belief that when we are at our "bests," we are the most capable of change, the most capable of positive growth. My photography seeks to portray subjects when they are in this element and in a place of natural emotion, capturing what is the essence of their surroundings."
Visit the Alaska Native Arts Foundation in November to view the "I Am Alaskan" exhibit and book signing.
Trina Landlord is the executive director of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation. She can be reached at trina(at)alaskanativearts.org