Chatter Marks

EP 009 The duality of storytelling: Balancing journalism and nuance, with photographer Jeroen Toirkens

Jeroen Toirkens is a documentary photographer based out of The Hague in The Netherlands. He mainly works on long-term projects that can take years to complete. His most recent project, Borealis, took six years to complete. It’s a book that documents the Boreal Forest and the people who live in it. To accurately tell the story of the Boreal Forest—which is the largest land-based vegetation zone and makes up around 29 percent of the total forested area on earth—He and co-author Jelle Brandt Corstius immersed themselves in the culture and in the environment. 
In pursuing a project, Jeroen feels that it’s his responsibility to tell a story in the most accurate way he can. This involves patience and experience and letting the story tell itself, rather than molding it to a narrative of your own.

EP 008 Women subverting Northern masculine myths with Anchorage Museum curator Francesca DuBrock

Francesca DuBrock is the Chief Curator at the Anchorage Museum, and she recently finished putting the finishing touches on Extra Tough: Women of the North, an exhibit dedicated to exploring how women have shaped Alaska and the circumpolar north. The exhibit was a massive undertaking, it took over 9 months to complete and now occupies the entire third floor of the Museum, which is about 7,500 square feet. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive history of the subject, but rather a multitude of snapshots that help explain how integral women are to the past, present and future of the north.  
Francesca says that a large part of unpacking all of this includes subverting cultural myths like ones that depict the brave, masculine explorer conquering landscapes. And, instead, portraying a cultural landscape where Indigenous people have lived for thousands of years. 

EP 007 Art as self-preservation: Responding to social oppression through creativity, with artist and educator Thomas Chung

Thomas Chung says that he’s always been interested in art, even as a child, but that as he got older it became a means of self-preservation. His upbringing was marked by racism and homophobia, and art allowed him to express the emotions he didn’t consciously understand at the time. Those emotions, he would later realize, focused on cultural awareness and compassion, and would come to define much of his professional art.
In addition to being an artist, Thomas is also an assistant professor of Art at the University of Alaska Anchorage. There, he continues to champion diversity, equity and inclusivity. 

EP 006 Collectivism and action in design with artist and architect Tiffany Shaw-Collinge

Tiffany Shaw-Collinge is an artist, curator and architect based in Alberta, Canada. She says that place and climate contributes to her work in a way that can’t be understated. It’s as integral to her craft as much as it is to her identity. In Part 2 of this conversation, Tiffany talks about her preference for working in a collective—that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts—and that her ultimate goal is to convey a sense of wonder and belonging in every project she’s part of. 

EP 005 Indigenous identity and design in professional spaces with Métis artist and architect Tiffany Shaw-Collinge

Tiffany Shaw-Collinge is an artist, curator and architect based in Alberta, Canada. She says that place and climate contributes to her work in a way that can’t be understated. It’s as integral to her craft as much as it is to her identity. Her lineage is Métis, a fact that became more and more part of her professional life after she realized how little indigenous voices and identity are covered. Today, she continues to explore her Métis lineage through her family, and then expressing it through her craft. 

EP 004 This is Dena’ina ełnena: Understanding histories, land and language with Anchorage Museum curator Aaron Leggett

Aaron Leggett is the president of the Native Village of Eklutna. He is also the Senior Curator or Alaska History and Indigenous Culture at the Anchorage Museum. In both of those responsibilities, he’s been a champion and an educator of the Alaskan identity. He’s found that critical thinking is key to understanding how Alaska’s history can help us navigate the present and the future. 
In this conversation, Aaron talks about his responsibilities as the president of Eklutna and how the Museum fits into the larger conversation surrounding Alaska Native equity.

EP 003 Recording stories of life at the poles with photographer and writer Acacia Johnson

Acacia Johnson is a photographer focused on human relationships to the environment. She spent most of her twenties traveling around Scandinavia and the polar regions, working on ships. Today, she has over 50 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.
In Part 2 of this conversation, Acacia talks about creating a record of stories, of people and place. About how, through photography, she has the opportunity to start important conversations about polar regions—about the people who live there, climate change and, ultimately, the lessons we can learn from it.

EP 002 A conversation with writer and photographer Acacia Johnson, at home in Alaska and at the northernmost and southernmost tips of the world

Acacia Johnson is a photographer focused on human relationships to the environment. She spent most of her twenties traveling around Scandinavia and the polar regions, working on ships. Today, she has over 50 expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica. 
In part one of this conversation, she talks about subverting the stereotype of what it means to be an explorer. And that means reframing the image of a man conquering landscapes to an image of a symbiotic relationship between people and the landscapes they live on.