Exploring Alaska’s volcanic wilderness with Gary Freeburg, Jan. 29








ROCKPORT — On Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m., photographer Gary Freeburg will give a narrated slideshow presentation at the Rockport Public Library entitled, “A Hard Walk through Solitude: Living Among Alaska’s Volcanoes.” The program is a unique meditation on Freeburg’s time living in one of Earth’s wildest and most remote places.
The volcanoes on the Alaska Peninsula and the fifty-seven volcanoes that project into the Aleutian Islands form the northern rim of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Many are in Alaska's national parks, monuments, and preserves. They continue to erupt — deposits of lava, pumice, and ash ejected by these volcanoes create primeval ground, a true wilderness where few people on Earth other than volcanologists have traversed.
Freeburg has wandered and lived among Alaska's volcanoes for regular periods during the past three decades. His writings, photographs, and drawings reflect on what it is like to seek solitude and live in the wilderness. His travels were mostly solo treks for which he was flown in with supplies, a camera, sketchbooks, and journal to share his thoughts and artistically render his experiences. His work has been published and exhibited nationally — most recently in the books The Valley of 10,000 Smokes: Revisiting the Alaskan Sublime (2012), and A Hard Walk through Solitude: Living Among Alaska’s Volcanoes (2024).
Gary Freeburg is a U.S. Navy, Vietnam veteran. He has earned three degrees in photography, including an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 1978. Freeburg lived and worked in Alaska for twenty-five years and served as a Professor of Art at the University of Alaska, Kenai Peninsula College. Freeburg is also a retired emeritus professor and former Director of the Duke Hall Gallery of Fine Art, in the School of Art, Design, and Art History at James Madison University. He now resides in Rockport, Maine.
Event Date
Address
Rockport Public Library
1 Limerock St.
Rockport, ME 04856
United States