Alaska
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Interview with Photographer Ben Huff(continued from page 1) How has your vehicle fared on the highway? So far so good. I traded in my car and got a truck, which has helped a little bit. I got [the car] stuck a couple times and put it off the road in the winter last year. One of the truckers helped me get it out, which was nice. It gets a little easier each time. You’re still shooting film, right? I’m shooting with a Toyo 4 x 5 field camera. So it’s 4 inch by 5 inch sheets of film. It’s very simple. If you’ve ever seen photos of photographers with the hoods over their heads — that’s the same type of deal. It’s a little bit smaller than an 8 x 10 obviously, but the same premise. I’ve been drawn to that format for a long time, a lot of it due to photographers that have been influences of mine. I order the film from New York, and I get it processed in San Francisco. How has using that type of camera influenced your trips on the highway? Really it was a monumental effort to get some of the photos, especially in the cold. You can’t just jump out of the truck and snap the shot. I really have to be deliberate. It takes a while to set up, and I’ve certainly missed shots. I’ve missed shots where the light is crucial. But I think that the shots that I have gotten are rendered better. And I found really early on, with the portraits especially, the camera was instrumental in the consideration that most people up there have given me. It has slowed things down. It has prompted conversation. It has made people relax. It has enabled me to make photos — and have people agree to make photos — that maybe I couldn’t have. How does that camera work out in the cold? It’s all metal and a pretty tough camera. It’s the second 4 x 5 that I’ve had up there. The first one that I bought was primarily plastic, and I broke it in Deadhorse last winter. But this one has held up. It’s much tougher. What kind of reception have you had from people you met along the highway? I’ve been blown away. There have been some really gracious people up there. I’ve been surprised every time, to be quite honest. Tourists, the folks in Wiseman and Coldfoot ... The truckers have been a harder nut to crack, though I’ve met some good guys. On the whole, they’re a little skittish, which is understandable. And they move pretty quick, too. They don’t sit for very long. But they’ve been good — I haven’t had anybody have a problem with what I’m doing. Any favorite spots on the road? Finger Mountain is probably one of my favorite spots on the road. It seems like the weather at that spot is always just ridiculous. You could be driving up and then driving down on either side and it would be fine 300 feet down the road, but something about that spot…I must have been in whiteouts in that parking lot there probably a half a dozen times. In October the light up north, north of Toolik Lake, the sunset around 5 o’clock ... there’s no place like that that I’ve ever seen. The variants of purples in the sky and on the snow — seeing that will change you.
The subjects of Huff’s photographs — from truck drivers and tourists to windswept mountain landscapes — serve as poignant reminders of the myriad ways that people experience their public lands. Through his creative endeavors, Huff is providing yet another type of experience by bringing the Dalton Highway’s treasures to those who haven’t yet visited what he calls “the last road north.”
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