Author Description

In 2007, Dutch-born, New York-based photographer Dana Lixenberg took her trademark 4-by-5-inch field camera and joined a film crew to document the Inupiaq (Eskimo) shoreline village of Shishmaref, which is disappearing into a rising sea as global warming melts the island's protective permafrost layer. From these visits comes this unusually powerful book, a hybrid of environmental photography and fine art essay, exploring the relationship between the 600 Inupiaq-people Al Gore has named ''the first climate refugees'' - and their unforgiving yet beautiful environment. The text addresses village debate about where to move and the effects of popular Western culture. Lixenberg's poignant portraiture brings to vivid life the men, women, and children whose identity hangs in the balance.