Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

The Messenger Feast... Kivgigñiq, or just Kivgiq 2015, was celebrated in Barrow Alaska from Monday February 7 through Saturday the 15th. I'll post a few images and provide a link to more.

The thread is not to discuss photography as such, but rather what the photographs are and what is shown. This is classic Street Photography! That may come as a surprise to some... but Street is not about streets, and it is not only about urban places. Street is about how humans interact with their environment; it is about life.

There is a significant aspect of a planned event which would usually mean it lacks the spontaneous nature required for Street Photography. But one of the important messages to see in these images is how everything except that we all came to Kivgiq is spontaneous. The "stage performances" are never close what was planned. Who dances to a given song, and what they actually do, is only "planned" as a guideline. Children join in, so do friends. The purpose is to celebrate, not to provide a specific performance. That is much more evident from the many images linked to, but perhaps not so obvious in just these few.

These are images of life, and the way people on the North Slope live.

Documenting Barrow, and life in Barrow, is basically what I do. And these images are a bit special because they are unique.

(Click on either the title or the image to see a larger view that includes data.)

The people of Kaktovik, in north eastern Alaska, are related to Barrow people, and also to the Inuit of western Canada. Aklavik, NT and Kaktovik, AK decided to share their dances.


Every dance group ends with an "Invitational" dance where everyone is invited to take part. It's a crowd...
Dress up is also an option...

The final image is Thelma Rexford, with Nuvukmiut Dancers from Barrow. Nuvukmiut means the "people of Nuvuk", which was the village at Point Barrow. Thelma, and her husband Oleman Rexford both had parents who were born at Nuvuk. They have fascinating stories they remember from parents and grandparents.

"Clickable link to more Images of Kivgiq 2015"

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Interesting--thanks for the explanations and the posting.

FrodoBaggins Loc: Texas

Very well done series! Great history and story. Thanks very much for sharing.

buddah17 Loc: The Bahamas

Thanks for sharing your world with ours...
Are all of the photos on the site yours??
Very interesting. I have a friend from high school that is coming to Fairbanks and Anchorage this week for 10 days to try and photograph the Northern Lights. He is not very experienced. Maybe you can be so kind as to suggest locations and/or times to photograph them...???

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Thank you for the comment.

I noticed you had posted a thread about visiting southern Arizona, and found that interesting too. I lived in Tucson from the late 50's into the 60's and graduated from High School there. But that's been awhile too... My advice is go there in March. The wind blows and the temperature is pleasant. :-)

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Well, it is certainly interesting to me!

I'm not finished with the images on the web page yet. More will be added, maybe some removed, and hopefully it can be a little better. I may also change the format (except that would be a huge amount of work) and make it an essay similar to the OP in the thread reads. It seems that Nalukataq is well described in various places on the Internet (Wikipedia for example, which originally was an article I wrote and added images to), but Kivgiq is not nearly as well covered.

Thank you for your interest, and for commenting on it.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Oh, I think there are two images on my whole web site that were taken by someone else. See the essay on ANWR.

But of course all of the Kivgiq images are mine. I might comment that this kind of photography is what I enjoy the most. The wildlife photography is fun, but it's just something that happens when I can't find fun people to photograph! :-)


The Fairbanks area is pretty good for Aurora, mostly because the sky is far more likely to be clear than it is here in Barrow. But he'll have to get away from the lights of the city. Going north on either the Steese Highway or the Elliott Highway (which branches off of the Steese at the town of Fox) might be the best. Long drives though, and it might be cold. Another place is Murphy Dome road, west of Fairbanks. And another is on the Parks Highway, along the ridge of mountains between Fairbanks and Nenana. Don't bother going down the Richardson Highway towards Salcha and Delta, because you'll have to go twice as far to get away from the lights.

The best time would probably be to start a trip at 9 or 10 PM and expect to return at 4 AM. Between 1 and 2 AM is commonly the best, but it might start earlier too.

I lived in Salcha, about 40 miles from Fairbanks, for two decades.

Good luck to your friend, and thanks to you for the comments.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Early March is what I'm thinking.