"We are facing an existential threat as a result of our planets increased rate of temperature rise. Treasured by the Tlingit native peoples, stunningly beautiful wilderness areas and ecosystems are vanishing on a daily basis. S.E. Alaska's 100's of glaciers are melting. One of our planets last remaining temperate rainforests - The Tongass National Forest is disappearing".
Ackerman's book, "S.E Alaska's Inside Passage - The Vanishing Wilderness", documents this region in a visually breathtaking, ultra high quality, eco-art coffee table book. "Only the medium of black and white photographs could capture the entire tonal range of rich textures and shapes of the vistas, glaciers, fjords, wildlife, Tlingit culture and the Tongass National Forest - the crown jewel of the Inside Passage". The book is case bound, hardcover, 13 x 11 inches,176 pages with 155 extraordinary photographs.
Ackerman, also president of Image With Vision, Inc., the publisher, released this new collection of photos detailing the stunning — yet disappearing — natural beauty of the Tongass National Forest in a new large format 13 x 11 inch coffee table book, S.E. Alaska’s Inside Passage - The Vanishing Wilderness.
What people are saying...
Looking at these photos is more than natural beauty. There is detail and life ... plants, animals, water and earth...capturing forever what is a vanishing land. I’ve not been to Alaska... but now know the intertwined and complex beauty of this remote wilderness. Now seen, I believe.
Paul Petersen
V.P. GM Ivanti Inc.
Member Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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The photographs by Rich Ackerman are breathtaking, even spiritual. One can’t look at this magnificent landscape and the animals, fish and birds that inhabit it without emotion. Viewing nature at this level of intimacy was deeply emotional. Rich implores us to act through his photos. To cry for our world and what could be lost. The stirring emotional quality of these haunts me, as if I was privileged to view the intimacy of our relationship with the land through his eyes. Thank you, Rich, for opening our eyes to the beauty and urgency of acting to preserve our natural world.
Roberta (Bobbi) Jannsen
Master Naturalist, Certified Arborist Morton Arboretum, former Center Dean, Keller School of Management DeVry University
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It’s a rare book that transports the reader to some exotic setting beyond the pages. It’s a special collection of photographs that draws us into the living world depicted within the covers. Rich Ackerman’s book is just that rare and special volume. SE Alaska’s Inside Passage / The Vanishing Wilderness provides an intimate view of Alaska’s endangered coastal environment – its landforms and life forms and the natural forces that interplay throughout the region. Beyond the science and the natural history, though, Ackerman’s photos bring us face to face with the Alaskan wilderness in a way few have done before.
Those who see these photos will be changed by them. It’s impossible to ignore the crash of calving glacial icebergs. The ethereal chill of morning fog. The majesty of breaching whales, soaring eagles, the puffins and seals and other denizens of the vanishing wilderness. Ackerman’s book reminds us that we are all fellow travelers in a world of beauty, but also a world in danger.
R. G. Ziemer
College of DuPage
Author of The Ghost of Jamie McVay
Prize-winning poet, Poets and Patrons 2014, 2018
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The narrative of S.E. Alaska Inside Passage tells a poetic and truly informative story about not just the history and ecosystem of the area, but also about its singular personality. The book shows the Passage, which I always assumed to be just a rugged and unforgiving place, as being nuanced and delicate. All of which is truly brought to life by Rich Ackerman's spectacular photography. Mr. Ackerman's high contrast style brings details to light that might otherwise go overlooked. The softness of mountain mist is palpable, the fine detail in a mossy forest make it difficult to pull my eyes away. He has an innate sense of composition and brings concept and mood to each image. There is a reverence of form in his photography. It's not just about the moment, but the very shape of the place. His use of light and shadow brings a wonderful mystery and even larger sense of grandeur to a naturally stunning and unique landscape. It's the work of a documentarian, delivered through the eyes and heart of an artist. I will return to these images over and over.
Cynthia Decker
Owner, Digital artist | Curious 3D
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For Ackerman, the book is a personal one. Through his frequent visits and time spent in the Tongass along with his wife Rose, Ackerman fell in love with and developed a passion for preserving the natural beauty and Tlingit culture of the region. The environmental landscape and macro photography expert hopes that his images will animate the stunning allure of the Tongass region along with all wilderness areas, while also creating a passion for preserving one of the world’s last intact natural rainforests. The book was created to capture and freeze in time the pristine ecosystem of the regions glaciers, forests, estuaries, channels, streams and wildlife - before they all disappear.
“Why is this preservation so important, why am I so passionate, dare I say possessive about this particular wilderness area?” Ackerman asked. “First and foremost, and I wish to be very clear — this region’s prime features are disappearing rapidly due principally to our planets cyclical warming and cooling that's been happening for eons. However, the pace of warming has been accelerated by carbon-based greenhouse gases generated by fossil fuels for at least the past few hundred years.”
Ackerman notes that the Inside Passage and its Tlingit people have been further affected by the clear-cutting of millennial trees in the Tongass National Forest (one of earth's last remaining temperate rainforests), contamination of shoreline and streams, melting & receding glaciers and an altered and declining wildlife population including the salmon in the Passage.
“This kind of climate change can be prevented, slowed — or even stopped,” Ackerman added. “However, that may not happen anytime soon, so I felt compelled to use my God-given talent as a photographer to document and record The Inside Passage and its associated wilderness areas before it disappears.”
Through the use of black-and-white photography, Ackerman captured the stark and dramatic moods of the Inside Passage. The stunning yet haunting scenes of glaciers, lush forests, teeming streams and abundant wildlife is presented in a style reminiscent of legendary photographers Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, William Henry Jackson, Imogen Cunningham and John Muir.
Ackerman said he chose to use black-and-white photography, as opposed to the more commonly used digital color technique, due to its ability to show detail, tonality, definition and to tell the Inside Passage's complete story without the distraction of color.
“I’m a pictorial realist,” Ackerman added. “I show things as they are in nature without changing any of nature’s complex and beautifully detailed DNA.”
Ackerman has teamed with environmental activist and writer Dr. Brandon D. Shuler, former executive director of the Outdoor Writers Association of America (OWAA) and professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of South Florida, to present the narrative of this impactful coffee table book.
Shuler's text describes and captures historical perspectives, along with native Tlingit culture and the challenges facing this unique ecosystem One that could vanish in the coming decades unless people act now to reverse the adverse effects of climate change and other challenges like old-growth timbering, overfishing, and swapping of public lands to states management.
Due to the importance of preserving the Inside Passage of Alaska, Ackerman and Image with Vision, Inc. have decided to contribute a percentage of the books proceeds to a large nature conservancy, a long-time, international player in acquiring, protecting, and preserving wilderness, wetlands, and disappearing environmental treasures.
Here's a preview from the book. The "active" Google GPS links under each photograph, actually take you to the exact location Ackerman created the photograph>>>>----
This book and all photographs are copyrighted. all rights reserved © Richard (Rich) Ackerman 2019.
