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WEIO 2013

© 2013 Ash Adams

For the past several days, I had the privilege of photographing the 2013 World Eskimo-Indian Olympics in Fairbanks, Alaska. Competitors from all over the world and especially the North gather during WEIO to compete in events that display the skills needed to survive in the arctic; the games test strength, agility, and flexibility in high jumps, long reaches, and strong pulls. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and neighbors all cheer the participants on, telling them when their jumps were too high, or their feet too flexed. But that's an important thing about WEIO; much like Native culture, it's a community event. This year was also a record-setter: Tim Field of Noorvik broke the world record for the highest one foot high kick (Canadian Style) on Saturday night, kicking an astonishing 9'9"--just shorter than a professional basketball hoop. The stadium exploded with raw energy.

This was my first WEIO, and it was magical--I hope my photographs show it. The display of athleticism, sportsmanship, community, culture, and family was a powerful thing to witness. That the athletes allowed me to be part of their inner circles and games day in and day out, that they would run to look on the back of the camera to see how their form was while practicing, added a dimension to this shoot that I didn't anticipate. I left the event feeling deeply moved and touched. My cultural ties are almost nonexistent, and to see culture that is this alive, thriving, and drumming, supporting one other to jump higher and reach further, is beautiful.

To see more of my photos from the week, check out the Alaska Dispatch.

Meghan

© Ash Adams

I imagined this photo weeks before I made it with the help of my friend, the fabulous Meghan Kim pictured here. We met on an Alaskan summer night around 9, set up the shot, and then turned on the lights and rolled. I love overthinking things, and I think Meghan does, too, but on this night, we just met, shot, and stood by a fence for a while.

Tim & Lisa

© Ash Adams

This past weekend, Brian and I had a fabulous time photographying Tim & Lisa's wedding in Muldoon. They are a lovely, vibrant couple with family and friends who know how to party! Congrats, you two!

Apayo Makes a Mural!

© 2013 Ash Adams

I'm so happy that friend and fellow artist Apayo was commissioned to paint a mural on the wall of the new Anchorage Covenant House in downtown Anchorage--it means I get to see her for the summer and her beautiful artwork on the regular! Go, Apayo!

Portraits of a Dentist

© 2013 Ash Adams

A couple of days ago, I had the priviledge to photograph Kevin Easley, D.M.D, in his office for a brochure in the works by the talented David Taylor of Sugarsled Creative. It was a fun session, and although the images were straight-forward and simple, I love the joyful quality that came through the lens.

Brian Adams and I are currently editing photos from a wedding we photographed together this weekend, so I'll have a few of those photos to share this week as well as some others from recent shoots! More soon!

The Photographer

© Ash Adams


The Photographer

It was at first to see the light,
immortalize its truths as stars mute and flat—
sun sighing over stairs,
the silvering humanity in an artist’s gaze,
crumbling and daggered
as a city,
profoundly unfinished—

It was at first to stand at the edge of a sea,
the universe bared open brightly,
doubled and backwards,
blown out secrets pitted in washes of ink.

But in these moments of starlight,
space spills like truth:

a boy thighing into dark places,
folding into a warm girl in a fallow field
beneath a spray of northern lights,
straining to see
not the firmness of her brow or the hollow place in her chest,
but that man-moon in the black of her eyes
hovering as a corpse.

In a fractured second’s exposure
see
not the stars,
but a child
running to the place in the forest
where the light falls off,
quivering awake that bit of unknowing
to something darker, something true.

                                                  --Ash Adams (originally published in The Dirty Napkin literary journal)