I am not a very good writer. I often find I have a hard time organizing my thoughts into a clear and concise message. Even fumbling around vocabulary to match my tone and expression. I believe that is one of the reasons I thoroughly enjoy photography. I get to still express something without being fully tethered to my proficiency in language. I am able to share an experience without an exchange of words. And I don’t have to be so overt with what is being said, and allow room for an individual to fill in their own pieces. All that to be said I stopped writing for a long time because of those insecurities. I also stopped photographing things outside of work. I felt as if I was taking away a lot of moments from the people I was with. I felt selfish, taking away time to connect with people in my presence to later share images with those who weren’t even there. For this reason I often left my camera at home. Just as anything in life that has value, it takes time, patience, and discipline. I am trying to discipline my ability to read and write to extend past the medium of photography and bridge gaps that I want to fill with expression. I am trying to discipline my time outside of jobs to still connect with other and have time to shoot things that I find meaningful.
So now that I have that lengthy intro out of the way I want to share a trip to Alaska I recently took. When I was 6 years old I moved to a new neighborhood and met a kid named Justin Wiseman. We became great friends and spent years hanging out at each others houses, eating dinner at one house, then going to the others house for 2nd dinner, playing in the desert and riding quads. We did this for a little more than a decade, and as we left high school we started on seperate paths to adulthood. Justin would take on seasonal work mainly as a fishing guide at private remote lodges in Alaska. After several years of doing that Justin became interested in being the pilot that would fly the guests into the lodges. So in Justin’s typically figure it out attitude, he began to learn to pilot small planes. Years past and I did not see Justin, I was busy with my career as well. For years I was hyper career focused, causing me to lose friendships, relationships, and putting a strain on any bonds with people I had. As I entered my thirties I have avidly worked to change this to be more than just my work. So Justin and I connected again as he informed me about his new position as the head pilot at the Denali National Park in Alaska, and he just had his 3rd child, if these weren’t good reasons to visit him then what would be? These photos are of my experience going to see an old friend who has become a respected pilot, a loving father, and can make some great Rhubarb pie. I was not sure what to expect when I booked my tickets but I quickly learned that life in Denali is quite the antithesis of mine in Phoenix. 1 grocery store, 24 hours of daylight, and plenty of open land and time to ride quads. I choose to reflect as often as I can, and through this experience I saw that we can all take some time to slow down and enjoy the fruits of our labor, give love as often as we can to those around us, and to make a Rhubarb pie you only need pie crust, flour, butter, sugar, and fresh Rhubarb.
THOMAS INGERSOLL
