by Inupiat, suggesting that the subjects in the photograph are of Inupiat descent. The group is seen sailing in an umiak among icebergs and slush ice in the Bering Sea. The umiak is a large traditional skin-covered boat used by native peoples in circumpolar seas from Siberia to Greenland. The umiak boats also served as travelling homes, carving studios, shelters, and as boundaries for cultural performances and religious ceremonies. “The umiak can be considered a form of architecture as well as a substitute for home in these societies. Much more than a boat, the umiak was actually more important than the sod and driftwood iglu house” (Fair, p. 233). The orotone process originated around 1880 and involves the creation of a gelatine positive on a clear glass plate which is coated on the back with a gold pigmented oil. This creates a luminous golden tone which gave rise to the name. Perhaps the most famous
90
the leading citizens of Alaska, having done most of all its inhabitants for the permanent development of the territory, and being the leaders in the business life of Nome and the surrounding region” (pp. 201 & 210). Their photographic oeuvre is a valuable source of Alaskan history, recording all aspects of northern Alaskan peoples and their culture. The photograph is unrecorded in the Lomen Brothers archive, at the Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries. Large orotone, number 1004, measuring 263 × 343; in its original gessoed wooden “Batwing” style frame, overall 372 × 345 mm. One Lomen Bros signature and image number erased in lower right corner of image, another retained, minor nicks to frame. Very good indeed. ¶ Roald Amundsen, My Life as an Explorer , 2008; Susan W. Fair, “The Northern Umiak: Shelter, Boundary, Identity”, Building Environments , 2005. £6,000 [158248]
exponent of the technique was Edward Curtis, who used it for his evocative studies of Native Americans, and whose studio developed the characteristic arts and crafts style frames associated with orotones. The Lomens were a prominent family in Nome, Alaska, and the five brothers, Carl, Harry, Ralph, George, and Alfred, were especially entrepreneurial. In 1908, they bought a photographic studio, with Harry as manager and Alfred as the main photographer, quickly learning how to keep cameras in working order at Arctic temperatures. A year later they purchased a drugstore, and in 1913 the rights to a reindeer herd and formed the corporation, Lomen and Co. Their studio produced the famous hooded portrait of Roald Amundsen, taken just three days before he disappeared forever in the Arctic searching for the airship Italia . Amundsen said of them in his autobiography: “My old friends, the Lomen Brothers . . . are generally accepted as
89
47
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker