Photographer Subhankar Banerjee's collection of vivid photographs of the Alaskan tundra, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, made a splash on the Senate floor last year, helping defeat a motion to open the refuge for oil drilling.
And yesterday, Banerjee appeared at Penn to promote environmental issues by displaying and explaining the exquisite beauty and heritage of Alaska.
"I'm not really an activist," he said, speaking in the Anatomy Chemistry Building before an audience of around 30 people. "I'm an artist and a scientist. I'm just presenting the facts and photographs."
Banerjee maintained that developing the Alaskan coastal area for oil "would not reduce the oil crisis by one cent."
"There is a miniscule percentage of the world's oil in the area, an estimated four billion barrels. The U.S. consumes 25 percent of the world's resources," he continued. "To be independent of foreign oil, we need to be independent of oil and look into alternative sources."
Banerjee is a trained engineer -- a vocation that he pursued in India despite harboring a passion for art. He came to the United States in 1990 to further his education in physics and computer science, and fell in love with nature in New Mexico.
But his more recent passion is Alaska.
"It was a dream come true," Banerjee said of going to the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "I'm from India, but I guess opposites attract."
There, over the course of 14 months, Banerjee traveled 4,000 miles with an Inupiat guide. The resulting photographic portrait captures the harmony and cycles of the landscape, wildlife and indigenous people.
Banerjee's work has been showcased in eight exhibits in 25 cities and has received critical attention from publications including The New York Times.
Banerjee took center stage in the Alaskan refuge oil debate when Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) used his images to refute Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton's characterization of the area as "a flat, white nothingness."
The photographs capture the region's imposing landscapes and subtle life in radiant colors.
"My favorite photograph is the one of the northern lights," College senior Lauren Bome said. "The bright red against the stark black of the night is simple, but striking."
Many of the creatures Banerjee has photographed now face dangerous changes to their habitat and feeding and breeding patterns, because of global warming and climate shifts.
Two native tribes, the Gwich'in and Inupiat, depend on the health of the animals and integrity of the land for their survival.
"To these people, it's a human rights issue," Banerjee said. "It's about respecting and preserving their way of life."
He warned that drilling would harm the tribes, saying, "There is no small footprint left by drilling technology. The required infrastructure has far-reaching consequences."
"He made it clear that it's not worth drilling," Bome said. "Educating is the biggest way to help the problem."
The event was sponsored by the University's Institute for Environmental Studies.
