A Summer in the Keweenaw : Photographing a Trip Home to Michigan's Copper Country

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Authors
Juntunen, Hans Parker
Issue Date
2006
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en_US
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This photo documentation of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula is about my experiences surrounding a return home. As my birthplace and home for five years, the Keweenaw is important to me. The project means to capture the places, people, events, and memories that shaped my childhood—as well as those of the summer of 2006. The author documents his return to his Keweenaw Peninsula home in the summer of 2006. The Keweenaw is rich in natural resources. Vast timber tracts, numerous copper mines, and powerful bodies of water dominate the landscape. The copper and timber industries continue to affect the area and population. Living in the Keweenaw and viewing it more carefully than before allowed the author to better understand his strong need to return home. From June to September, 2006, he lived with his grandparents on the family's original farm and worked logging my father's property. These photographs capture the memorable summer as well as present evidence of memories from his youth. A meaningful place full of beauty can be overwhelming to document. The resource rich peninsula, surrounded by the majesty of Lake Superior, offers wonderful opportunities and interesting challenges when photographing. Some of the images resulted from the need to capture an idea, well defined in my mind. Now expressed in prints are the places and activities that have remained important to him. He found it easier to photograph a memory than put it into words. Other images resulted from hours spent working with the camera to develop a new technique. Expressing a whole summer with pictures led the author to think about many things in terms of aperture and shutter speed, and how they could help express time and place. Still other images were the result of the right time, the right place, and enough luck to experience some of nature's magnificence. The author shot 2,990 images to create the 25 prints of this project. To complete this project, he designed and constructed the frames. He chose birch, cherry, and bird's-eye maple to showcase the valuable resources of the area. The lumber was cut in 2005 from the same property where he worked.
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42 p.
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U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.
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