The S.S. Nenana is the last of a dying breed, a wooden hulled sternwheeler steamer. At 237 ft. long, 42 ft. wide and 22,000 square feet of deck space, with a draw of just six inches, she is the second largest wooden vessel in the world today. Built from designs by W.C. Nickham, she was launched in 1934 from Nenana, Alaska. This 500-ton ship traveled the Yukon River carrying passengers and freight to villages. When fully loaded, she carried a crew of 32, plus 35 passengers and 300 tons of freight. She also pushed as many as six barges loaded with merchandise. The five-deck Nenana made the 774-mile voyage from Nenana to Marshall, Alaska, every two weeks during her five-month season, traveling 24 hours a day. In the early fall or in poor weather when it was dark, a huge searchlight mounted on the steamship made forward progress possible. Her boilers were woodfired. Top speed was 17 mph downstream and 10 mph upstream. When under full steam, the boiler consumed a cord and a half of firewood every hour. Cutters along the river supplied wood, often using dogsleds to build stockpiles. About 200 cords of wood were carried on the cargo deck and 16 cords piled on the bow for ballast. In 1948, the boilers were converted to oil. The Nenana was finally pushed out of the freight and passenger business in 1955 by faster, more economical methods of transportation. Thirty-two years later, the Fairbanks Historical Preservation Foundation embarked on a mission to restore the Nenana. Workers used original chalk marks on deck floors and the recollections of the Nenana's last captain, pilot and purser to rebuild the sternwheeler as closely to its original design as possible. In her heyday, the Nenana was the last and most luxurious of the paddlewheelers plying the rivers of Alaska and the Yukon. Once again, mahogany paneling and brass hardware gleam in the observation lounge. The original wheel has been restored and turns at the touch of a hand. The ship's original bell is heard on deck again and telegraph/radio transmissions are possible. Velvet curtains and fresh white linen tablecloths once again grace her lovely -interior. It took both public and private funds and thousands of hours of dedicated volunteer work before the six year, $1.8 million project was completed in 1993. ~Article is © 2000-2001 by the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau

28 megapixels of tesco chicken and gravy pie! My first photo for the large-format brief, 'abstract autobiographical'. The symbolism is supposed to represent Don Mclean's American Pie, and relates to a memory from when I was younger of my mum's side of the family gathered round at my house singing it while my Uncle played on an acoustic. The styling of the image is modelled on Martin Parr's garish and grotesquely saturated images of food that stand as a metaphor for 'englishness' and our national foods. This reflects the cheesy nature of the memory, singing round a guitar, but stands for the simple pleasures that can be brought from family moments (or tasty pie!) Initally I was going to cut up the pie into the shape of the flag and leave it unpainted, but the crumbliness (if that's a word) of the pastry made it look like I'd just squashed the pie. So I got some paint from the art department and painted on the stripes and stars. The gingham tablecloth was supposed to add to the kitsch, tacky feel and I thought the square pattern conflicted with the circle of the pie. The second problem was in using the light meter, which I set to 640 ISO instead of 64, so the transparency ended up coming out massively dark. I did my best to ressurect it on photoshop (as I didn't fancy cutting up another pie and shooting the whole thing again) but there's still a bit of a lack of quality.