ben huff . odds & ends

He closes the essay saying..

“The writers in The Future of Nature differ in their approaches, hail from many parts of the country, and are in no full philosophical agreement. Though, the represent a visible, coherent trajectory through a confusing wood. They illuminate and provoke.

I’ve been carrying those words for days. Illuminate and Provoke. And, as I sat in the audience last night at the annual Governor’s Awards for the Arts as artists, writers, teachers,  arts advocates, community members, legislators and press all celebrated the necessity of local arts and involvement, and the importance of the Alaskan and National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the words continued to ring in my ears. Illuminate and Provoke. The room was filled with smart, industrious, and creative people - I felt hopeful.

Hope has been in short supply lately. The past two weeks has been a surreal and frustrating affair. In our country, character is seemingly no longer important. Celebrity is the new currency. Hysteria has trumped truth. Empathy has been replaced with narcissism. Facts have been replaced by paranoid conspiracy theories, masquerading as truth.

The executive power in this country believes that all is broken, that we are ignorant peasants, and that their backward answers are the only true way through the wood.

I’m not so naive to believe that any one piece of art will change the world. But, I do believe that it’s totality is intrinsically necessary. I believe in revolution. Our community of arts and writers is strong, and collectively, we have the power and obligation to give our history a context and stubbornly traffic in beauty.   

Personally, I will need community, and the work of others to get through the next four years. I’ll need books, and pictures, and films, and intelligent people making intelligent arguments and making intelligent art. I’ll need an antidote to the ignorance that will profess to speak for me as an American.  

studio view / books / prints

Fairbanks in Winter by Dennis Witmer has arrived! I'll start shipping pre-orders today. New orders can be placed through our profile link. 📚📭

Fairbanks In Winter is almost finished 📕 pre-orders in our profile.

editing Adak pictures from last month. 

I’m happy to announce the first title from ICE FOG PRESS - Fairbanks in Winter by Dennis Witmer - is available for pre-order!

Witmer’s pictures, from the 90s and early 2000s, were made with an 8x10 view camera and an even more cumbersome 12x20 in the heart of winter. The carefully studied pictures, cold and almost innocent, represent a boom time in the small Interior Alaska town of Fairbanks. 

Introducing ICE FOG PRESS! 

The origins of this effort go back to 2007 in Fairbanks, and I’m excited to finally get this off the ground, and will be sharing news of upcoming projects soon. 

It seems only fitting, that we’ll be leading off with a book by my dear friend Dennis Witmer. More to come with the book in a few weeks, with pre-orders and printing later this fall.

Also, for local photographers and artists, we’re offering digital printing services through the studio at ICE FOG PRESS -  in the Triangle Building, #100, downtown.

Bay View neighborhood, with Great Sitkin Island in the distance, Adak Alaska, 2016

This afternoon, I’m catching a flight to Portland for my exhibition of The Last Road North at Newspace. The opening is this Friday night, the 6th. If you're in the area, please come by the exhibition from 6-9:00p and say 'hi'.