Zoom-in Online

This blog post was contributed by Elizabeth Leitzell, a photographer based in New York City. Visit Elizabeth's website to see more of her work, and take a look at her blog.

I followed my mother, Siri Tuttle, up to Minto, Alaska in May, and documented her language work there with the Minto people. Those shots are forthcoming while I sort through all the film, but I want to share some photographs that I took on our daily strolls around the village.

During the day, we would work in the library of Minto’s school, interviewing elders and playing traditional music for them.  It was a crash course in the Lower Tanana Athabaskan language and history for me, coupled with a crash course in breathing fresh air and watching beautiful light move across an epic landscape.

It is hard to believe these are real places and real moments in time when I look at them on my computer screen inside my apartment, listening to the city noises outside.