Alaska Positive opens in December at the Alaska State Museum

Left: Camille Seaman. Right: Stranded Iceberg, Cape Bird, Antarctica, Dec. 25, 2006 by Camille Seaman.

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Now in its 53rd year, Alaska Positive continues to encourage photography as an art form in Alaska.

Camille Seaman will give a lecture on Friday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 p.m. at the Alaska State Museum as part of the fall/winter speaker series Cooler Seasons, Warming World.

“Art is not only important; it is necessary for us to communicate what is happening with our planet,” Guest juror Seaman said.

Her photographs concentrate on the fragile environment of the polar regions, providing the message: “we are of this Earth, and we only get one.”

Born on Long Island, Seaman is of Shinnecock, Montaukett, African American, and Italian ancestry.

She was raised to celebrate the interconnection of humans and their environment.

This way of seeing shapes her approach to photography today. She has traveled from Alaska to below the Antarctic Circle, photographing the landscape and its inhabitants.

Over the last two decades, she has documented the effects of climate change on the Earth’s polar regions.

Seaman studied photography with Jan Groover and drawing with John Cohen at the State University of New York at Purchase, where she graduated in 1992.

She has taken master workshops with renowned photographers Steve McCurry, Sebastiao Salgado, and Paul Fusco.

Her photographs have been published in National Geographic Magazine, Italian Geo, German Geo, TIME, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Newsweek, Outside, Zeit Wissen, Men’s Journal, Seed, Camera Arts, Issues, Photo District News (PDN), and American Photo, among many others.

Her photographs have received many awards, including a National Geographic Award and the Critical Mass Top Monograph Award.

She is a TED Senior Fellow, Stanford Knight Fellow, Cinereach Filmmaker in Residence Fellow, National Geographic Contributing Photographer, and Artist-in-Residence at Denali National Park (2015).

Her published works include The Big Cloud: Spectacular Photographs of Storm Clouds, Melting Away: A Ten-Year Journey through Our Endangered Polar Regions, and The Last Iceberg.

Alaska Positive opens Dec. 1, 2023, at the Alaska State Museum and runs through Mar. 9, 2024. The exhibition will then travel to museums throughout Alaska.

It’s also available to attend via Zoom.

Upcoming lectures in the series

Sabena Allen -Thursday, Nov. 9 at 12 p.m., Sheldon Jackson Museum & via Zoom

Camille Seaman – Friday, Nov. 17 at 5:30 pm, Alaska State Museum

Ben Huff – Friday, Mar. 1 at 6:30 pm, Alaska State Museum

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