Cont., SILK ROAD Embroideries (#1-123) of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Continued... Embroideries #1-123

Silk Road - Embroideries of Robert Glenn Ketchum

The city of Suzhou, China, produced China's most beautiful silk and silk embroidery practiced by generational families for 3,000 years. My purpose in going to China starting in the mid-1980's was to turn my photographs into textiles, and this is my story. 
~Robert Glenn Ketchum

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Due to the size and quality of the photos included in this blog, and as too many photos tend to slow a blog down, we have opted to host these previous entries on a separate post in order to best optimize your reading experience. Enjoy!

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Thursday, May 28, 2015

Silk Road - Embroideries #123

SILK ROAD #123:   So, here are 2-of-the-4 panels of “Emperor Kangxi’s Inspection Tour of Southern China.” What you are looking at is about 10-1/2-feet long, and 2-feet tall; all stitched with human hair! What you saw in previous posts were details from these two panels. Post #120 (of the bridge) can be located in the middle, right of the right-hand panel. Post #122 is in the lower-right of the left-hand panel. As you can see, the detail sections I presented are barely 20% of their overall panel. Now extrapolate those minutiae of stitches across this entire piece: OMG!!! EVEN MORE AMAZINGLY, this “aerial” view is architecturally accurate. In 1986, I could still recognize bridges, historic gates, and walls, and the layout of certain neighborhoods! More than likely, the artist commissioned by the court to create this work in 1689 was in a pagoda tower, or on a hill above the city in order to correctly represent this POV.

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2015, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd #Embroidery @WesCFA @RSSDesigns

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TELL THE PEBBLE PARTNERSHIP TO CALL IT QUITS

The fight to stop the Pebble Mine goes on -- but the battlefront has moved from the U.S. EPA to the courtroom and beyond as we escalate massive nationwide pressure on Northern Dynasty Minerals, the last company standing behind the disastrous venture, to call it quits.

Over the last two weeks, NRDC ran a series of hard-hitting, full-page print ads in Washington urging the Pebble Partnership -- Northern Dynasty's legal entity -- to walk away from Pebble Mine. The EPA has confirmed that this gargantuan open-pit, gold and copper operation -- along with its estimated 10 billion tons of toxic mining waste -- carries catastrophic risk for Bristol Bay, its world-class salmon fishery, its pristine environment and its people.

Saying Goodbye to Bobby Andrew, Defender of Bristol Bay by Joel Reynolds

Saying Goodbye to Bobby Andrew, Defender of Bristol

Bay
by Joel Reynolds, Western Director and Senior attorney, NRDC, Los Angeles

I didn't expect the Pebble Mine would outlast Bobby Andrew. He was a fighter who never seemed to get tired. Over 70 years old, and he was always willing to make the trip - whatever the trip, wherever it took him -- to talk, to testify, to tell the terrible story of the uniquely reckless scheme by international mining giants to poison the communities and wild salmon fisheries of Alaska's Bristol Bay with a gigantic copper and gold mine.

photograph © copyright, Natural Resources Defense Council 2015 @NRDC @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd 

At the age of 72, Bobby died last month, and the traditional Russian Orthodox 40th Day service occurs this week, when his soul is released from the Earth. When he talked, people listened, because there was no denying his personal stake, his authenticity, his legitimacy in representing the people of Bristol Bay. He was a Yupik elder and a member of the Ekwok Tribe, longtime spokesperson for Nunamta Aulukestai, a life-time subsistence and commercial fisherman, born in Alegnagik, near Dillingham -- and he looked the part. The determined and immovable opposition of Alaska Natives to the Pebble Mine was reflected in his face -- serious, resolute, even angry - and he was repeatedly featured in full page ads around the world as the face of the regional coalition against the Pebble Mine.

Robert Glenn Ketchum introduces 'Mandalac Gardens' Series at Venice Art Walk

from the series:  MANDALAC GARDENS "Tequila Sunrise"   2015

Earth Month Los Angeles 2015 featuring Conservationist Robert Glenn Ketchum

April 2, 2015 – April 26, 2015

Earth Month Los Angeles 2015 featuring LittleBearProd Client, Conservationist Robert Glenn Ketchum 

April 2, 2015 – April 26, 2015

About Earth Month Los Angeles 2015 

National Wilderness Conference

The other recent event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act I participated in was National Wilderness Conference in Albuquerque, NM. Organized by all of the collective federal agencies that manage wilderness lands, this was a multi-day event featuring numerous presentations and distinguished speakers such as Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, author Terry Tempest Williams, and Senator Tom Udall. I was asked to be an "inspirational" closing keynote speaker, along with my old friend, Dave Foreman, author of Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, and co-founder of Earth First!, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and  most recently, the Rewilding Institute.  Dave Foreman, Environmentalist, and Robert Glenn Ketchum, Conservation Photographer, 2014

50th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act

As I mentioned previously, 2014-2015 is the 50th Anniversary of The Wilderness Act. There were many celebrations of this, and I took part in two of them which have some interesting links I have provided here for you to enjoy.  The Crary Gallery in Philadelphia is in Warren County, near to Tionesta township and the Allegheny River. Tionesta was the home of Howard Zahniser who wrote the original Wilderness Act, so the Crary Gallery honored him by having a large exhibit of photographers whose work would show the breadth of wilderness in North America. Among them, I am the only photographer whose work has ever actually helped to create wilderness, so the curator honored the special nature of those images and included brief text / stories with the display.

Happy 2015 from Robert Glenn Ketchum!

I want to wish everyone Health, Happiness, and Prosperity for the New Year.  2015 is the Chinese year of The Sheep!   My Xmas / New Year's present came early and in a big package - PRESIDENT OBAMA PROTECTED BRISTOL BAY FROM ALL OIL AND GAS LEASING. I hope to ultimately see Bristol Bay have status as a protected commercial fishing reserve, yet this is a GREAT first step! GRAND AS THIS IS, HOWEVER, IT DOES NOT END THE PLANNED DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUGE OPEN PIT MINE IN THE BRISTOL BAY HEADWATERS, SO PLEASE CONTINUE TO BE VOCAL AND SAY "NO" TO THE PEBBLE MINE.

Pebble Mine 2014 Year in Review: "And Then There Were Lawyers . . . ."

Pebble Mine 2014 Year in Review: "And Then There Were Lawyers . . . ."
by Joel Reynolds
Western Director and Senior attorney, NRDC, Los Angeles
published in Huffington Post, Posted: 01/05/2015 1:58 pm EST

When someday the story of the Pebble Mine is told, 2014 may be best remembered as the year when all that remained of the once formidable Pebble Partnership was a bunch of lawyers for hire. By the end of 2014, all of the mining giants and their funding - Mitsubishi, Anglo American, and Rio Tinto - were gone, leaving only Northern Dynasty Minerals to keep the reckless vision of the Pebble Mine alive. The Partnership's new CEO is a lawyer from the Washington, D.C. law firm of Steptoe and Johnson, and mining activities have ground to a halt.

1968 Self Portraits of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Self-portrait in 4-F Camouflage, 1968
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd

These images were created as part of a class assignment while studying with Robert Heinecken (#RobertHeinecken) at #UCLA in 1968. These are black and white (b/w) photographs that have been highly manipulated in the darkroom, and then painted upon with oils of different transparency value. Heinecken was a very non-traditional photographer who encouraged experimental work.  He furthered my approach and thinking about the process of making pictures begun in my first #photography classes at UCLA, taught by Edmund Teske (#EdmundTeske), also a very non-traditional photographer. I know my work was also influenced by contemporary graphics as well as many of the rock star personalities I was photographing at the time.

Robert Glenn Ketchum featured in Tommy Hilfiger's new online magazine!

Little Bear Productions' Conservation Photography client Robert Glenn Ketchum is featured in Tommy Hilfiger's new online magazine! 

Weekly Post: SAN IGNACIO LAGOON: Saved For the Whales! by Robert GlennKetchum

San Ignacio Lagoon: SAVED FOR the Whales!

by Robert Glenn Ketchum

World-Renowned Conservation Photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum dedicates Tuesday's to the Natural Resources Defense Council's (@NRDC) successful campaign that kept a whale birthing lagoon from industrial development.  Laguna San Ignacio Gray Whale Nursery in Baja California, Mexico is best known as the winter home to the once-endangered gray whale. The lagoon lies within one of the largest ecological preserves in Latin America, designated a Biosphere Reserve / World Heritage Site by the Mexican government in 1988. This blog is part of that story.  Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

San Ignacio Lagoon: SAVED For the Whales! #90:

SAN IGNACIO WHALES #90: The bottom line is that A LOT OF PEOPLE showed their human concern for the protection of some amazing fellow travelers on this #planet and now the gray #whales of #SanIgnacioLagoon can continue their long history of using this safe haven as their birthing area and nursery! Thank you #JoelReynolds and #NRDC for inviting me to take part in this. Thank you to Bobbie Kennedy and his family, the Aridjis, Glenn Close and her daughter, and Pierce Brosnan and his son for allowing themselves to be figureheads to this #campaign and for allowing all of us the thousands of pictures, interviews, and words that it took. This was a privilege for me, as well as an education.  AND a chance to physically interact with one of the largest minds and creatures on this planet. This is the last post of this story, so I hope you have enjoyed what I have tried to relate and that you will take the opportunity to visit San Ignacio, touch a whale, drink some tequila and cerveza and watch the sun rise and set in shimmering radiance of the tidal fluctuations.
photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd #LittleBearProd #SanIgnacioLagoon @NRDC @AudubonMagazine @RobertKennedyJr @PierceBrosnan @JMCousteau @HomeroAridjis @ProNaturaMexico @PentaxOnline @FujiFilmUS

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:

WEBSITE: http://www.robertglennketchum.com/

TWITTER:  http://www.twitter.com/RbtGlennKetchum

LINKEDIN:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/rbtglennketchum
FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/RobertGlennKetchum
PINTEREST: http://www.pinterest.com/littlebearprod/photography-conservation-san-ignacio-whales-by-con/
SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com

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Cont, NO PEBBLE MINE, 1-100: Pictures from Ground Zero by Robert Glenn Ketchum

Continued... No Pebble Mine #1-100

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 

NO PEBBLE MINE #100, Pictures from Ground Zero:

NO PEBBLE MINE #100, Pictures from Ground Zero:  The #rain stopped. The #sky cleared a bit. The #wind died down, so the #lake calmed, and my plane came in... SO let's go flying! We are headed back to #LakeIliamna to continue around the south shore, eventually crossing over the #Kvichak river, and although we will be going back over some of the same #landscape seen coming in, I have NEVER flown over the same landscape on different days or at different times and EVER thought it looked the same. In this view, #Katmai is being left behind and #BrooksCamp and the #IliukArm are now out-of-sight to the upper right. The massively braided #Savanoski river winds across the middle of the frame and our flight path is beginning to cross over some of the myriad of lesser lakes. Down there somewhere are 2,000+ happy bear. Hail Katmai! Hail Wilderness! Happy 50th Anniversary #WildernessAct (@Wilderness)!

photograph(s) © copyright, ROBERT GLENN KETCHUM, 2014, @RbtGlennKetchum @LittleBearProd @NRDC @OrvisFlyFishing #NoPebbleMine #LittleBearProd

Follow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Photographic Activism Online:

FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/NoPebbleMine.photos

FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/RobertGlennKetchum
  TWITTER:  http://www.twitter.com/RbtGlennKetchum
  PINTEREST: http://pinterest.com/littlebearprod/conservation-no-pebble-mine/
  SUPPORT THE CAUSE: http://shop.littlebearprod.com/No-Pebble-Mine_c65.htm
  SOCIAL MEDIA by #LittleBearProd: http://www.LittleBearProd.com _____________________________________________________

Robert Glenn Ketchum: A Life at the Intersection of Pictures and Politics at The G2 Gallery

photograph © copyright, Robert Glenn Ketchum, 2014

ASMP LA Presents

Robert Glenn Ketchum: A Life at the Intersection of Pictures and Politics at The G2 Gallery: