Woman - at Venice 2019!

Woman, co-directed by Ukrainian-born director and journalist Anastasia Mikova and French photographer and environmentalist Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is a magnificent, touching documentary that is both funny and sad. Woman has a rather simple premise: women from around the world and from all walks of life talk about what, for them, it means to be a woman. The documentary is part of Woman, a worldwide project giving a voice to 2,000 females across 50 different countries. The women talk straight to the camera and in first person. The stories are broken up and grouped into loose topics that deal with so many facets of human existence: motherhood, relationships, birth, death, rape, war, love, marriage, education, financial independence, kindness and joy.

Art for Change Event COMING SOON

Hello Activists,

Unfortunately I will be scheduling another upcoming portrait session for the I am NOT a Target project.

Stay tuned for the date but it will be after Aug. 19.

For now, this event will be in Fairbanks, but stay tuned for other AK locations.

Thanks.

Good bye to The Alaska State Council on the Arts

The art widow appears in spaces where the arts are in jeopardy. She embodies grief and loss, and asks us to imagine a world (in this case the state of Alaska) without art.  One of the many things the Alaska State Council on the Arts does really well is provide a platform for diverse voices, whether it's a child participating in a national poetry competition, a Master artist sharing cultural knowledge in a mentorship program, or a military veteran using creative means to work through trauma on a path to healing. Governor Dunleavy's strategy is to eliminate the creative voice along with those in institutions of higher learning and public broadcasting media, all arenas in which we hold our public discourse, grow our knowledge, challenge beliefs and express ourselves.

"Funding to art in the state has been cut not because of its excess but because of its power." - Sheryl Reily

--caption and concepts by @camera_blanca Sheryl Reily
--photo by Kate Salisbury Wool
--Birch tree art at the Fairbanks International Airport by Bettisworth North Architects

Sarah Lewis and Aperture

Thank you for this free edition of Aperture’s Vision and Justice, available to download to anyone! Sarah Lewis’s edit and the essays inside are worth a read. Photographic history is so rich and it is great to read so many critical essays on photography in one issue. I would love to see Sarah Lewis speak one day!

Thank you Alaska Quarterly Review!

Lily Pads and Clouds, Lost Lake, Alaska, 2018 © Kate Wool was published on the cover of AQR. Order your copy today!

Powerful Website

Please take the time to read the stories and see the photos on this wonderful website dedicated to remembering the children who died from gunshots. Thank you to all of the contributors, sponsors, young people who made this tribute.

Since Parkland website

Press for Kate Wool/For Freedoms partnership and the I am NOT a Target project.

THE ART NEWSPAPER: Artists join forces in bid to swing US midterm elections, by JILLIAN STEINHAUER Artist-run organization For Freedoms’ country-wide initiative is a rallying point—even in right-leaning states

The I am NOT a Target exhibition on display at Well Street Art Co., Fairbanks, AK. Wool had to find an inside venue because billboards were illegal and no private business she talked to was willing to hang the banners on the outside of their buildings.

FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER: Fairbanks photojournalist promotes gun-safety activism through art, by Kris Capps

Other press about the 50 State Initiative:

THE GUARDIAN: Fifty billboards: an art project hopes to provoke debate across America, by Nadja Sayej

VANITY FAIR: The Striking Election-Season Billboards That Are Also Art, Every state in the U.S. will host large-scale public art from artists like Carrie Mae Weems and Marilyn Minter—all in hopes of getting you to vote. by ERIN VANDERHOOF

Beautiful Portraits by Adam Ferguson →

Adam Ferguson's portraits of the girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram, are some of the most beautiful portraits I have seen in a long time.  They have emotion, color, raw beauty, and leave me wanting more and more.  The edit of them, design, and incorporation of movement in the NYTimes article is worth a read and look. Bravo Adam.  

Thank you participants in all of the Art for Change community events around Alaska.

Our posters made it to the front page of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner print addition.  They were also seen in the March for Our Lives events in Fairbanks and Anchorage.  My deepest gratitude to all the participants in this important project.  It takes a lot of courage to take a stand and I could not have this work without the brave participants and hosts.

All of the photographs of people who posed will be compiled and sent to Alaska delegates in Washington, DC in hopes of communicating that change is needed in the direction of more gun safety legislation.  

Please contact me if you would like to learn more about this project.

Art for Change Community Events

I need volunteers who care about our communities, and want change.
All you have to do is show up, wear white, and have your photograph taken. My 'I Am Not a Target' project is a work in progress photographing the spaces and places where children and guns intersect. It is a work in progress morphing into action, and I need all kinds of models who care.
I will be taking anyone's portrait who cares about gun safety. The photos will be made into posters and available FREE TO DOWNLOAD from my website. You can send them as call to action postcards for lawmakers or use them for signs for the March for Our Lives on March 24 in Anchorage, Washington, D.C., and around the country. 
After my last community event, I will be compiling all of the portraits into one big poster and sending them to all three Alaskan delegates in Washington, DC in hopes of communicating that we need action on gun safety legislation. 
All YOU have to do is show up.

**Show up at the location and time above and wear white. **If you are a minor or bringing a minor, a parent will need to sign a model release. 

ART FOR CHANGE

I will be photographing anyone who wants a card or poster or protest sign like this in Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Juneau before the March for Our Lives, March 24.

They will be available FREE to download to send politicians, or use in the march, or any place you see fit.  After the last city, I will be making huge posters with all of the images to send to Congress, the Senate, and Alaskan politicians.  If you would like to participate, please stay tuned for confirmed locations.  Right now, these dates are confirmed:

March 4: Fairbanks
March 12: Juneau
March 17: Anchorage

Email me if you have questions! Thank you.

In Memory...

I photographed Richard Benavides, Legislative Aide, on the 3rd floor of the capitol in Juneau, Alaska in 2016.  This year he passed away and left many memories for his family and life.  I also photographed his beautiful daughters when they were visiting him during their spring break.  It was so nice to meet you Richard, and have the honor of photographing you and your daughters. You are forever in my memory.

Alaska's Tiny Beauty

I haven't posted in awhile. I just haven't been very good at writing lately.  Thank you Alaska Magazine for publishing 2 photographs from my Tiny Beauty project. Alaska is known for it's vast wilderness and grandiose views and wildlife.  It's tiny beauty is often overlooked, but it is just as spectacular.  This is a sawfly, Cimbex americana. Please check out more work in progress, of which Tiny Beauty, and more projects are ongoing. 

The Capitol Project is coming.....

The Capitol Project is coming! This year I was able to photograph in March. Although most of the lawmakers were busy that week with budget on deadline, I was still allowed to photograph in the Governor's Conference room for a couple hours.  The other photos of course are from wondering around the capitol building. The Capitol Project is a portrait project putting politics aside, portraits of the people making a difference in the beautiful historical 90 year old capitol building in Juneau, Alaska.

Pictures of the Year

What beautiful stories the winners of the Pictures of the Year have captured! I can't stop looking at the above very busy image by Hashem Shakeri...there is so much going on....bravo judges.  I have included more of my favorites below.  Take time to really look at this art. Emotion, intent, and sentiment are in all of these.

A mother and son at the makeshift refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece. (First place, General News.)

Olmo Calvo

In a downpour, SOCO (scene of the crime operatives) for the Manila police investigated in an alley where a man named Romeo Joel Torres Fontanilla, 37, had been killed by two unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in the early morning of Oct. 11, 2016. (Award of excellence, General News.)

Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Drew Moore, 11, posing with his air gun collection in his bedroom, where the definition of a boy is stenciled on the wall. In his Arkansas community, hunting and manhood are entwined. 

Pete Muller/PRIME for National Geographic

Individual Photographs

Photographers are always supposed to be working on projects. This is important, of course, because it implies intent. For me, however, sometimes the finished projects come later over time and in many different groups.  Only then do you start to see your images morphing into groups, concepts, meaning.  These Women's March images are shown together on my webpage, but I see them best as individual photographs.

Women Photograph

I am very honored to be included in this all female data base of working photographers.  As a re-emerging photographer, connections and networking are crucial.  Please take a look at the talent that has been featured. www.womenphotograph.com

Women's March Photographs

Humanity, Women's March, Washington, DC, January 21. 2017 © 2017

I am working on editing a complete photographic essay on my Women's March experience. Please check back for updates on this empowering event. 

Women's March, January 21, 2017

I will be heading to Washington, DC for the Women's March tomorrow.  I have a few personal projects I am working on while there. Look forward to some meaningful work coming soon! If you can't make it to DC, there are sister marches all over the world.  Checkout womensmarch.com for all the important info.  This photograph is from last year's,  The Capitol Project.

Stay tuned for work from this more important than ever adventure....

Africa's Photography

This is the second year in a row where I have been impressed with the work coming out of Lagos Photo, a festival of African Photography. The concepts impress me and I love the imagery.  I have included some of my favorites here. The NYTimes had a nice review of the festival HERE.

Act I. From the self-portrait series “Self-Portrait as a White Man.”  Kiluanji Kia Henda

Keyezua