Alaska is a transient place. People come and go only to be replaced by the next tide of visitors. Like the human ebb and flow; every winter, for about a two month window, Turnagain Arm (just south of Anchorage) is host to a daily gathering—not of people but of ocean born sea ice. In 2008, I set out to make portraits of these ephemeral ice floes stranded at low tide. Through the use of large format photographic prints a gallery has been assembled of my 5 years documenting the unique individuals that have visited Turnagain Arm.
Projections indicate that within the next 50 years there may be no sea ice to touch the coast of Alaska. The ice floes that come up the inlet from the open ocean each winter may in my lifetime become a thing of the past. Global climate change is altering our environment, and the demise of these strangers annual visit may be an early clue of what is to come.
Hal Gage is an artist living in Anchorage, Alaska. For more than 30 years he has practiced the art of photography. His work has been shown through out Alaska, in the lower forty-eight, and internationally. His work is in the collections of the major museums in Alaska, national corporate collections and in private and public collections internationally. He has twice been awarded a Rasmuson Foundation Artist Fellowship for mid-career artist among other awards and honors.
