Q&A with Kevin Smith

Anchorage-based photographer Kevin Smith caught up with Alaska Stock’s Mollie Foster this week to chat about his Village Mural School Projects. Smith is a globally recognized architectural photographer, who also specializes in art installations featuring Alaskan themes. Read the conversation in our first Photographer Q & A, posted the second Monday of each month.

MF: How did you get into creating murals?
KS: I shoot a lot of architectural photography. An architecture friend approached me about a “hall of elders” concept, and I came up with the idea for a large format mural. That was back in 2004, and through word of mouth it’s just taken off from there.

MF: Where are the murals you’ve done?
KS: In schools in villages across Alaska: Akiak, Akiachak, Tuluksak, Noatak, Deering, Shungnak, Kalskag, Ruby and Anaktuvuk Pass. In addition to murals for the Anchorage fire station # 4, Machetanz Elementary School in Palmer and the Harry J. MacDonald Center in Eagle River.

MF: What’s the process for creating a mural?
KS: For the murals in remote villages, I go and check out the architectural space of the building. There are different ways to apply graphic images to a space, so I see what works well in each space. I gather information from the community, who the important people are, get a list of the elders. Then I gather images, shooting my own, scanning historical photos or outsourcing stock to get as complete a picture of the village as I can. I try to visit during all four seasons if I can, and show the village activities: subsistence lifestyle, elder portraits, and scenic shots, among others. Then I combine the images in Photoshop, creating one big file with hundreds of layers. Then I take the file to a local print shop Graphic Works, to have it produced.

MF: What message do you hope the mural will convey?
KS: The point is to tell the community story, each village has its unique history, culture and activities that they do. It’s a balance between telling the story and including the right pieces to give an accurate historical report of the village that is artistically pleasing at the same time. My wish is that the artwork makes people proud of where they live and the culture they have.

MF: How does the community react?
KS: Folks love it. It’s all about their culture, the people and the way of life. It’s about making the elders their heroes. Why should Batman or Superman be their hero? It should be Uncle Joe or Grandpa Dick working their fish camps. That’s what the idea is all about. I’ve been told that once the mural is up, the kids behave better. Like, there’s Grandpa Joe and he’s watching me. The mural takes an empty space and gives it personality, which is pretty fun.

MF: How long do they take to create from start to finish?
KS: Between trips to the village during all four seasons, research and the work on the computer, projects can take anywhere between 3-4 months to 2 years.

MF: Who funds the mural projects?
KS: These projects are paid for by State of Alaska Percent for Art program. In urban areas, one percent of building costs has to be spent on art, in rural areas half a percent is spent on art.

MF: Any advice for photographers interested in this type of work?
KS: For doing village work, you have to have an easy-going personality and be able to roll with punches. You can’t get uptight about things that don’t happen like you’d expect them to. That and…get a really comfortable chair (for spending a lot of time in front of the computer).

MF: What’s the next project on your plate?
KS: The Top of the World hotel in Barrow, and the school in Kobuk. They should be done in the next few months.


— By Mollie Foster

Alaska Stock introduces an innovative approach in modern photography

Anchorage, Alaska - Alaska Stock has embraced digital photography and all of the benefits that come with it including quick uploads, online viewing, and e-commerce capabilities. However, Alaska Stock feels that the time is right to introduce an innovative approach in modern photography. Utilizing high end cameras and partnering with some of the leading photography labs across North America and internationally, Alaska Stock will now be exclusively accepting 35mm, medium format and large format film.

With the “popular” move towards digital, we decided to compare the quality against our new film technology. We feel the wide dynamic range offered in film cannot be matched by old style 20MP digital cameras. Film produces the ultimate HDR image far superior to the time wasting HDR manipulations of digital cameras. Additionally, films like Velvia are known for producing deep, rich colors. For example, a well executed Velvia transparency viewed through a quality lupe on a light table produces an unparalleled saturated red. When a digital image is viewed on your computer screen, the color can be any variation of “red” depending on the quality of your monitor, its calibration or the light conditions under which the image is being viewed and will never achieve the undefinable richness of Velvia. Film is always sharp and durable. You can drop a film canister a hundred times without affecting the sharpness of the film. Finally, it has come to our attention that professional film cameras, lenses and accessories are now available on the market for exceedingly low prices which will be a great benefit to our contributing photographers in producing hundreds of new photos to re-build our film archive.

Beginning April 1, 2014, Alaska Stock will now only accept film submissions from our photographers and only submit original transparencies safely packaged in Kimac slide protectors to our clients. We encourage our clients to review their Fed-ex and UPS accounts to make sure they have the correct insurance coverage for receiving and handling film transparencies.

With the recent popularity of digital, we feel we’ve lost our personal connections not only with our clients but with our photographers. It’s time to get re-connected face-to-face with our clients and photographers. We invite our local clients to come by and see our latest in the updated film collection during our office viewing hours from 9am-5pm in our downtown Anchorage office. We will provide a large light table viewing area, 10x lupe, and comfortable seating for our clients as they browse through the stacks of images we are able to provide for their project. Upon selecting an image, we will only need a quick signature accepting liability for the original and you are then free to take the transparency for scanning at your preferred lab.

Photographers are encouraged to embrace the future of film and take note of our revised list of accepted film cameras: Nikon FM2, Hasselblad, Holga, SX-70 Polaroid, and Canon AE-1.

Alaska Stock looks forward to working with you in this new age of film!