Grab Your Edition Gift Of The Whale Composed By Bill Hess Disseminated As Volume
This is NOT a commercial coffee table book or a series of
pretty pictures suitable for note cards, A short story, Bill Hess is a very gifted photographer, who works almost exclusively in black and white, He has spent a great deal of time with the people the people of the North Slope whose lives are shared in this book.
For a number of years he was under contract to the North Slope This is a stunning visual presentation combined with a moving, unpretentious text.
The drama of the three grey whales, the search for footprints, it is all powerful stuff, I have only been living in Barrow for nine months but so far there isn't a word that doesn't
The yearly hunt for bowhead whales of the Inupiat Eskimos living around Barrow, Alaska, is central to their culture and traditions.
A new book that is part anthropology, part documentary, and wholly satisfying captures the lives of these people, Hess, a photographer and writer who has worked for years among Native Americans, spent a number of years living with the hunters and documenting their hunts for bowhead and beluga whales and smaller prey, such as sews.
The Inupiat initiated the author into the hunt the same way they initiate their own teenagers by putting him to work cooking for the hunters, cleaning the camp, and helping to move the umiak whale boat to its launch site by snow machine.
The skill of the hunters and their knowledge of the biology of the whales generally allow for a successful hunt, and the blubber, meat, and other whale products not only provide food but are the basis for the entire culture as the sharing of the whale ties the community together.
The aboriginal right to hunt bowhead whales an endangered species remains controversial, but Hess' book presents a strong case for the cultural and spiritual side of the argument and as such is highly recommended.
Nancy Bent