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Subhankar Banerjee (born 1967) is a photographic artist, educator and activist whose images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other Alaskan wild lands have captured international attention.

Early life

Born in Berhampore, India, Banerjee received his bachelor's degree in engineering before moving to the United States, where he received master's degrees in physics and computer science. He worked in scientific fields for six years at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Boeing in Seattle. In 2000, his childhood passion for art, coupled with a deep love and concern for the wilderness and disappearing indigenous cultures, caused him to leave his career in science to pursue art. Since then he has focused all his efforts on indigenous human rights and land conservation issues in the Arctic.

Career

In 2001 Banerjee began the first of two years of ground-breaking year-around field photography in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The photos he took were published in the book Seasons of Life and Land.^[1] Banerjee's photographs of the Refuge were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, and controversy erupted when his captions for the photos were altered and the exhibit was moved to a far corner of the museum. Senator Richard J. Durbin and others in Congress felt that the Smithsonian had been pressured, probably by Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, to remove the exhibit from the spotlight because Senator Barbara Boxer had held up Banerjee's book during a Senate floor debate over oil drilling in the Refuge. The museum maintained the changes were made "for artistic reasons".^[2] The attention brought by the controversy led the exhibit to travel to sixteen museums around the United States^[3] and since then Banerjee's work has been exhibited in more than fifty museums around the world.^[4]

Banerjee's book, Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point (Seven Stories Press, Summer 2012), addresses current issues of climate change in the Arctic, resource war, and human rights using first-person narratives from activists, writers, and researchers.^[5] The volume is used for teaching environmental humanities^[6] and has formed the basis for other projects, such as a 2018 series of haiku poems.^[7]

Awards

Banerjee has received many awards for his Arctic work including an inaugural Greenleaf Artist Award from the United Nations Environment Programme and an inaugural Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. Banerjee was an artist-in-residence at Dartmouth College and the Sea Change Artist-Activist Resident at the Gaea Foundation in 2009.

Notes

^ Subhankar Banerjee (2003). Seasons of Life and Land. Mountaineer Books.
^ Censorship or Politics? Views Differ Over Exhibit
^ Finis Dunaway, "Reframing the Last Frontier: Subhankar Banerjee and the Visual Politics of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge", in A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History, The University of Alabama Press, 2009
^ Amon Carter Museum of American Art, introduction to "Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know" http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/subhankar-banerjee-where-i-live-i-hope-to-know
^ Book page for Arctic Voices.
^ Merola, Nicole (2016). "Engaging the 'Eaarth': Teaching and making climate change cultures in an art and design context". In Siperstein, Stephen; Hall, Shane; LeMenager, Stephanie (eds.). Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. pp. 146–152. ISBN 9781317423225.
^ Helman, Daniel (1 August 2018). "When the Whales Left". Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics. 5 (2). Retrieved 18 August 2018.

External links

[1] Subhankar Banerjee (2003). Seasons of Life and Land. Mountaineer Books.

[2] Censorship or Politics? Views Differ Over Exhibit

[3] Finis Dunaway, "Reframing the Last Frontier: Subhankar Banerjee and the Visual Politics of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge", in A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History, The University of Alabama Press, 2009

[4] Amon Carter Museum of American Art, introduction to "Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know" http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/subhankar-banerjee-where-i-live-i-hope-to-know

[5] Book page for Arctic Voices.

[6] Merola, Nicole (2016). "Engaging the 'Eaarth': Teaching and making climate change cultures in an art and design context". In Siperstein, Stephen; Hall, Shane; LeMenager, Stephanie (eds.). Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities. pp. 146–152. ISBN 9781317423225.

[7] Helman, Daniel (1 August 2018). "When the Whales Left". Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics. 5 (2). Retrieved 18 August 2018.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{Short description|American photographer}}
-'''Subhankar Banerjee''' (born 1967) is an artist, educator and activist whose images of the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] and other Alaskan wild lands have captured international attention.
+{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
+[[File:Subhankar Banerjee.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Subhankar Banerjee]]
+'''Subhankar Banerjee''' (born 1967) is a photographic artist, educator and activist whose images of the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]] and other Alaskan wild lands have captured international attention.
+== Early life ==
-Born in [[Baharampur|Berhampore]], [[India]], Banerjee received his bachelor's degree in engineering before moving to the United States, where he received master's degrees in physics and computer science. He worked in scientific fields for six years at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]] and [[Boeing]] in [[Seattle]]. In 2000 his childhood passion for art, coupled with a deep love and concern for the wilderness and disappearing indigenous cultures, caused him to leave his career in science and pursue art. Since then he has focused all his efforts on indigenous human rights and land conservation issues in the Arctic.
+Born in [[Berhampore, West Bengal|Berhampore]], [[India]], Banerjee received his bachelor's degree in engineering before moving to the United States, where he received master's degrees in physics and computer science. He worked in scientific fields for six years at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] in [[New Mexico]] and [[Boeing]] in [[Seattle]]. In 2000, his childhood passion for art, coupled with a deep love and concern for the wilderness and disappearing indigenous cultures, caused him to leave his career in science to pursue art. Since then he has focused all his efforts on indigenous human rights and land conservation issues in the Arctic.
+== Career ==
-In 2001 Banerjee began the first of two years of ground-breaking year-around field photography in the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]]. The photos he took were published in the book ''Seasons of Life and Land''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Subhankar Banerjee|title=Seasons of Life and Land|publisher=Mountaineer Books|year=2003}}</ref> Banerjee’s photographs of the Refuge were exhibited at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]’s [[National Museum of Natural History]], and controversy erupted when his captions for the photos were altered and the exhibit was moved to a far corner of the museum. Senator [[Richard J. Durbin]] and others in Congress felt that the Smithsonian had been pressured, probably by Alaska Senator [[Ted Stevens]],  to remove the exhibit from the spotlight because Senator [[Barbara Boxer]] had held up Banerjee’s book during a Senate floor debate over oil drilling in the Refuge. The museum maintained the changes were made “for artistic reasons”.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E2D9113EF932A15756C0A9659C8B63 Censorship or Politics? Views Differ Over Exhibit]</ref> Since that exhibit Banerjee's work has catapulted to the top of many gallery and museum lists, and this and other work has been exhibited and collected by museums around the world.{{citation needed|date=August 2008}}
+In 2001 Banerjee began the first of two years of ground-breaking year-around field photography in the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]]. The photos he took were published in the book ''Seasons of Life and Land''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Subhankar Banerjee|title=Seasons of Life and Land|publisher=Mountaineer Books|year=2003}}</ref> Banerjee's photographs of the Refuge were exhibited at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s [[National Museum of Natural History]], and controversy erupted when his captions for the photos were altered and the exhibit was moved to a far corner of the museum. Senator [[Richard J. Durbin]] and others in Congress felt that the Smithsonian had been pressured, probably by Alaska Senator [[Ted Stevens]], to remove the exhibit from the spotlight because Senator [[Barbara Boxer]] had held up Banerjee's book during a Senate floor debate over oil drilling in the Refuge. The museum maintained the changes were made "for artistic reasons".<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E2D9113EF932A15756C0A9659C8B63 Censorship or Politics? Views Differ Over Exhibit]</ref> The attention brought by the controversy led the exhibit to travel to sixteen museums around the United States<ref>Finis Dunaway,  "Reframing the Last Frontier: Subhankar Banerjee and the Visual Politics of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge", in A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History, The University of Alabama Press, 2009</ref> and since then Banerjee's work has been exhibited in more than fifty museums around the world.<ref>Amon Carter Museum of American Art, introduction to "Subhankar Banerjee: Where I Live I Hope to Know" http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/subhankar-banerjee-where-i-live-i-hope-to-know</ref>
+Banerjee's book, ''Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point'' ([[Seven Stories Press]], Summer 2012), addresses current issues of [[climate change in the Arctic]], resource war, and human rights using first-person narratives from activists, writers, and researchers.<ref>[http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100658190 Book page for ''Arctic Voices''.]</ref> The volume is used for teaching environmental humanities<ref>{{cite book|last1=Merola|first1=Nicole|title=Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities|year=2016|editor1-last=Siperstein|editor1-first=Stephen|pages=146–152|chapter=Engaging the 'Eaarth': Teaching and making climate change cultures in an art and design context|isbn=9781317423225 |editor2-last=Hall|editor2-first=Shane|editor3-last=LeMenager|editor3-first=Stephanie|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-xsxDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT183}}</ref> and has formed the basis for other projects, such as a 2018 series of haiku poems.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Helman|first=Daniel|date=1 August 2018|title=When the Whales Left|url=https://plumwoodmountain.com/when-the-whales-left/|journal=[[Plumwood Mountain: An Australian Journal of Ecopoetry and Ecopoetics]]|volume=5|issue=2|accessdate=18 August 2018}}</ref>
+== Awards ==
 Banerjee has received many awards for his Arctic work including an inaugural Greenleaf Artist Award from the [[United Nations Environment Programme]] and an inaugural Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the [[Lannan Foundation]]. Banerjee was an artist-in-residence at [[Dartmouth College]] and the [http://seachangeresidencies.org/seachange_mission.html Sea Change Artist-Activist Resident] at the [http://www.gaeafoundation.org Gaea Foundation] in 2009.
-Banerjee's  book, ''Arctic Voices: Resistance at the Tipping Point'' ([[Seven Stories Press]], Summer 2012), addresses current issues of [[climate change in the Arctic]], resource war, and human rights using first-person narratives from activists, writers, and researchers.<ref>[http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100658190 Book page for ''Arctic Voices''.]</ref>
 ==Notes==
@@ Line 13: / Line 19: @@
 ==Further reading==
-*{{cite journal |last=Tursi |first=Alexandra |date=12 April 2010 |title=The Eco-Critical Photographer: An Interview With Subhankar Banerjee |journal=[[Identity Theory (webzine)]] |volume= |issue= |pages= |url=http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/banerjee_index.php |accessdate=29 March 2011}}
+*{{cite journal |last=Tursi |first=Alexandra |date=12 April 2010 |title=The Eco-Critical Photographer: An Interview With Subhankar Banerjee |journal=[[Identity Theory (webzine)]] |url=http://www.identitytheory.com/visual/banerjee_index.php |accessdate=29 March 2011}}
 ==External links==
@@ Line 20: / Line 26: @@
 *[http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/229942_burke25.html Seattleite Subhankar Banerjee's photos of Arctic 'Life and Land' are winning hearts]
 *[http://windmt.com/pages/pm/matthiessen_banerjee.html Audio file: Subhankar Banerjee discussing his photography and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic]
-{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2011}}
 {{Authority control}}
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Banerjee, Subhankar}}
@@ Line 31: / Line 34: @@
 [[Category:Living people]]
 [[Category:20th-century Indian photographers]]
-[[Category:American male artists of Indian descent]]
+[[Category:American artists of Indian descent]]
+[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
+[[Category:21st-century American male artists]]
 [[Category:1967 births]]
+[[Category:Photographers from West Bengal]]

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