Flat, White Nothingness?

Abstract

This chapter considers Subhankar Banerjee’s unlikely path to Arctic activism. An Indian-born photographer, Banerjee spent much of 2001 and 2002 in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, taking photographs during all four seasons. In 2003, an exhibition of his photographs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History sparked an unexpected controversy, leading to charges of government censorship. The chapter weaves together Banerjee’s life story with discussions of his approach to photography—including his efforts to render nature in mono- or bi-chromatic color schemes—and of the relationships he built with Gwich’in and Iñupiat communities. Like Lenny Kohm, Banerjee learned that the Arctic Refuge fight was a struggle for Indigenous rights and cultural survival. More than any previous artist and activist, Banerjee—through his photographs of caribou and migratory birds—helped viewers appreciate the transnational significance of the Arctic Refuge, both with and beyond North America. In addition, the chapter explains how Banerjee’s show was revived by the California Academy of Sciences and then toured the United States for two years and how he moved into grassroots activism, including slide show tours with Gwich’in and Iñupiat leaders.