Always Getting Ready, Upterrlainarluta: Yup'Ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska

Rating:
Summary: Photojournalist's Account of the Real People
Review: Having lived many years among the Yupik in Southwestern Alaska, James Barker does an exceptional job of accurately portraying the cyclical nature of life in rural Alaska. The changing of the seasons and how they affect the gathering and subsistence activities of the Yupik comes across clearly in the photographs. This book is important in the documentation of a way of life that is rapidly being subversed by the global economy which involves oil, stocks, and money.

Rating:
Summary: Photojournalist's Account of the Real People
Review: Having lived many years among the Yupik in Southwestern Alaska, James Barker does an exceptional job of accurately portraying the cyclical nature of life in rural Alaska. The changing of the seasons and how they affect the gathering and subsistence activities of the Yupik comes across clearly in the photographs. This book is important in the documentation of a way of life that is rapidly being subversed by the global economy which involves oil, stocks, and money.

Rating:
Summary: stunning
Review: James Barker tells a story in pictures and words so richly that either of those media may have sufficed. The photos are powerful -- I was awestruct by the originals when I had the chance to see them in an Alaskan art museum --and they tell a story of an ancient culture in transition. The words are mostly the old stories and traditions that are still being passed down to the next generation.