Exhibit changes create dispute

An exhibit of Alaska wilderness photos ignited a minor uproar in the nation’s capital last year.

The exhibit featured 49 photos of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is at the center of a fierce debate between environmentalists and the Bush administration over oil development.

Freelance photographer Subhankar Banerjee’s photos were displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, but drilling opponents charged that the exhibit was moved from it’s scheduled location in the rotunda to a basement hallway and stripped of its original captions for political reasons.

In early 2000, Banerjee, of Bellevue, quit his job at Boeing, cashed in his savings and headed to Alaska to document the refuge’s land, wildlife and indigenous people.

A trained physicist from Calcutta, India, Banerjee spent 14 months over two years photographing the Artic refuge, braving subzero temperatures and blizzards. Accompanied by an Inupiat guide, he traveled 4,000 miles on foot, raft and snowmobile and lived with native Athabascan and Inupiat families when he wasn’t traveling.

Banerjee’s photos document the refuge during all four seasons, depicting a region teeming throughout the year with musk oxen, polar bears and migrating caribou.

Banerjee returned and published his photos in a book, “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land” (The Mountaineers-Books, $22.95).

During a national tour of the photos, Smithsonian officials said they altered the display because captions from the book and exhibit bordered political advocacy, which the museum tries to avoid.