Jane Whitmore
Once again, a research-driven project has received my attention. However, this time it takes on a much more personal tone and one that reaches back into a box of family heirlooms to find the spark that sets it off. Jane Whitmore's latest work, The Bikini Project, is something to see, read, and absorb as an ongoing adventure of uncovering past events and discovering details of a father's legacy. It's wildly intimate in how it takes dramatic and world-shaping events and brings them home to examine. What's more, is when these revelations take you outside of the family and into the world where you also explore how these events have affected others.
You know that the wrongs of the past can never be corrected. Still, you can approach them with transparency and knowledge to inform others as a way to hopefully move away from making similar mistakes in the future. Using photography to learn from the past is a crucial component of Jane's work, and it is a commendable one at that. I've been purposefully vague with my explanation because I'd rather you hear it directly from someone who is experiencing it firsthand, right now, and without shying away from what might be found. Jane Whitmore is taking a complicated history and finding something quite unique in the process of making photographs for this project. It's a good thing she was able to make some time for me to answer some questions. Good for all of us, actually.
Detonation of Baker, Operation Crossroads, Bikini, July 25, 1946
Bio -
I am Jane Whitmore, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and former archeologist. I have traveled extensively around the world. Although I am originally from New York, I have lived in New Mexico for 46 years. I have two sons and two grandsons who bring much pleasure to my life.
My father was a photographer, and I jokingly say I grew up in the darkroom. He gave me my first camera when I was seven and enthusiastically supported my photographic efforts from the time I was a very young child. As a result, I have enjoyed making images all of my life.
In 2018, I closed my clinical psychology practice. I now work full-time on my photography and writing projects which are an outgrowth of my professional work and my father’s influence. Through these projects, I strive to promote human rights, and respect for cultural diversity; to evoke compassion for the human condition; and to enhance cultural pride. I use photography and writing to advocate for these issues by documenting the experiences of prehistoric, historic and contemporary cultures.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Hello Jane, it’s a pleasure to investigate a bit about how and why you make photographs, as well as your latest project. Can we start with some background on what got you started in the photographic arts?
JW: Michael, I am very pleased that you are giving me this opportunity to tell you about my photography and discuss some of the experiences and ideas that inform it. Thank you very much.
Unlike many of the people you have interviewed for Catalyst, I do not consider myself primarily an artist. Instead, I identify professionally as a clinical psychologist. I have practiced psychology in Santa Fe, New Mexico for more than 30 years, and I maintain my license to practice even now when most of my energy is directed towards photography and writing. Prior to becoming a psychologist, I was an archeologist for the School of American Research and the National Park Service.
After I graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in international relations, I spent a year and a half traveling solo around the world. I later obtained a master’s degree in anthropology and a doctorate in psychology. Although I have no formal training in art or photography, I have always had a camera slung over my shoulder, and I have always enjoyed making images.
Perhaps this lifetime enjoyment of photography is related to the fact that my father was a photographer. From the time I was a very young child, his darkroom was one of my favorite places to hang out. Enthusiastically, he supported my photographic efforts, and together we would review my images while discussing composition and light. I believe my father’s influence and my personal and professional life experiences have converged in a unique way that is directly related to what I am doing now. In 2018, I closed my clinical psychology practice. I now work full-time on my photography and writing projects.
MK: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you first started making photographs?
JW: I started making photographs at the age of seven when my father gave me my first camera. The gift of my first camera was a momentous occasion. However, until the last few years, photography has been more or an avocation than a serious pursuit. If I had known in my early life that, with persistence and practice, I could make images and create portfolios that would compel and move others, I think I would have devoted more serious effort and study to photography at an earlier age.
MK: What is it that you get out of creating photographs? Is there an overriding theme in your work that you feel best represents you as an artist?
JW: The overriding themes in my photography are derived from the values that have informed my previous professions as an anthropologist and clinical psychologist. Human rights, cultural diversity and compassion for the human condition are the overriding themes that propel my work. Creating photographs that are value driven gives me a sense of satisfaction.
Will Whitmore, Operation Crossroads, Bikini, 1946
Will Whitmore, Journal Entry Baker Day, Bikini, July 25, 1946
Nuclear Remembrance Day Event, Marshallese Dancer, Springdale, Arkansas, February 28, 2020
Nuclear Remembrance Day Event, Springdale, Arkansas, February 28, 2020
Nuclear Remembrance Day, Young Marshallese People, Springdale, Arkansas, February 28, 2020
MK: You recently received the Project Launch Grant from CENTER for 2021. The project that garnered this attention is The Bikini Project. Can you tell us a little about how this collection of photographs was conceived and what it is about?
JW: In July 1946, the United States tested two nuclear bombs at Bikini, a small island in the Marshall Islands. My father, Will Whitmore, was a civilian participant in this project, Operation Crossroads. In 1959, he died from cancer mostly likely caused by extreme radiation exposure during the nuclear testing.
Three years ago I discovered my father’s Bikini memorabilia in a box that had been stored for many years. I found the six-month daily journal in which he described his Bikini experiences, photographs, newspaper clippings, reels of 16 mm film and his letters to me when I was six years old. I began to study, organize, scan and photograph this material.
The contamination of the small island, the displacement of 167 Bikini Islanders and the impact to their culture, as well as the continued nuclear testing on the Marshall Islands deeply bothered me. The Bikini Project became my personal endeavor to document this period in American History and to rectify, in some way, my father’s voluntary participation in a project that brought suffering to so many people.
Through my research, I learned that one third of the Marshallese people have migrated to the United States. Approximately, 15,000 Marshall Islanders, including 150 Bikinians, now live in Springdale, Arkansas where many work for Tyson Foods in the chicken processing and distribution plants. In February 2020, I was invited to attend Nuclear Remembrance Day in Springdale. There I met many of these people, and I photographed their events, food, dress and dances and made their portraits.
When I received the Launch Grant from CENTER in June 2021, I returned to Springdale for the annual Marshallese Atoll Stroll festivities. I photographed the fair, and I interviewed and made portraits of five Bikini descendants of the original Operation Crossroads survivors.
Through The Bikini Project, I hope to focus attention on the human rights and diversity issues that are associated with Operation Crossroads. I also hope, with increased awareness, we can avoid some of the mistakes of the past especially regarding nuclear disarmament and the displacement of indigenous people.
MK: This is quite a treat for people to see the steps taken to work on a project like this. We already recognize how the research components of the series inform the work by connecting the dots and creating a timeline of events. Were there ever times that you weren’t sure where this was headed or even what your next steps were going to be?
JW: From the very beginning, when I first opened the boxes that contained my father’s memorabilia, I didn’t know where this project was headed. I still don’t know where it is going. I knew that I was searching for answers to two general questions. I wanted to know why my father participated in Operation Crossroads, and I wanted to know what happened to the Bikini People after the nuclear testing. The more I learned, the more I wanted to interview and photograph the original survivors of Operation Crossroads.
When I began my project three years ago, 25 survivors were alive. However, when I was in Springdale in July 2021, I learned that only nine of the original 167 Bikini Islanders were still alive today. Two live in Oregon, and the remaining seven survivors live on Kili island in the Marshall Islands. I believe their stories and images need to be recorded for the education and awareness of others. Due to the pandemic, however, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is closed to travelers, and even within the United States, travel is risky.
Nevertheless, for my next step, I would like to locate the two survivors in Oregon and seek their willingness to be photographed and interviewed. When travel to the Marshall Islands is permitted, I hope to travel there to locate the remaining seven Bikini survivors. Kili, however, is a small island, only six feet above sea level. When storms occur, the waves wash over Kili. Climate change today is as much of a threat to Kili and the Marshall Islands as nuclear contamination was to Bikini during Operation Crossroads. I feel a sense of urgency given the age of the survivors and the probability that the Bikini descendants and survivors will need to be relocated from Kili as sea levels rise. So, Michael, I don’t know where this project can or will go, although I am committed to continue the project in whatever direction it may go.
MK: You have had a past photographing the cultures and traditions of others around the world, but for The Bikini Project, there is a very personal and challenging story running parallel to the research and documentary aspects of this project. Because of it, this emotional connection is what drew me into the project in a more meaningful way. Has it affected you differently in how you have made work in the past, or maybe caused you to feel more urgency in completing it?
JW: I have a strong and emotional connection to all of my work. But yes, Michael, I have an especially strong emotional connection to this story. I believe Operation Crossroads was a misguided endeavor causing many people to suffer including the Bikini and Marshallese people, my family and the other Americans who died from radiation exposure. The two nuclear bombs tested at Bikini were the first of many. The United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, 23 of which were on Bikini Atoll. If The Bikini Project can increase awareness and education about the nuclear legacy of Bikini and the Marshall Islands in general, I believe I will have made a small contribution towards achieving nuclear disarmament and gaining respect for disregarded indigenous people.
Nuclear Remembrance Day Event, Marshallese Dancers, Springdale, Arkansas, February 28, 2020
Atoll Stroll Festivities, Springdale, Arkansas, July 31, 2021
Bikini Descendant, National Coordinator for the Bikini Coalition, Springdale, Arkansas, July 28, 2021
Bikini Descendant and Wife, His Mother Was a Survivor of Operation Crossroads, Springdale, Arkansas, July 28, 2021
Bikini Descendant, Seeking Medicaid Approval for Medical Problems, Springdale, Arkansas, July 29, 2021
MK: Because of this recent grant, it seems there is new funding to help complete The Bikini Project. What more do you wish to accomplish, and how will the grant help you to realize those goals?
JW: I am very grateful to CENTER for awarding The Bikini Project the Project Launch Grant. I have already used a portion of the Launch Grant funding to return to Springdale where I attended the Atoll Stroll festivities and interviewed and photographed Bikini descendants. In the future, I would like to visit the Marshall Islands and to meet the survivors and descendants who live there today. The Launch Grant will help to cover the expense of travel, logistics and translation. The grant also offers many opportunities to share my work, and the funding will help me take advantage of these opportunities when they arise
MK: I notice that a large part of your photographic practice also contains components of the written word. The photo essays on your website are quite remarkable and full of interesting stories and topics surrounding your home in New Mexico. Indeed, this is important for crafting a solid artist statement, but do you also feel that this is the best way to flesh out the stories and projects you work on?
JW: The photo essays are vignettes and associations to my personal, photographic and professional experiences. However, the photo essays are not primarily a means of crafting my artist statement or fleshing out the projects I work on. The purpose of the photo essays is to encourage viewers to think critically about their own experiences and how they may relate to the themes I portray.
For example, I have a great respect and love for the cultural diversity and natural beauty of New Mexico. I hope the photo essays will inspire others to consider the significance of cultural diversity as it has evolved in the context of their own unique historic and natural environments.
I also believe the juxtaposition of images and the written word can be more powerful than either alone. At the same time, I acknowledge I may explain too much. And a good image is a powerful conveyer of meaning.
MK: With a few exceptions, you seem to photograph mostly in black and white. Any thoughts on why this is?
JW: As I said earlier, my father was a photographer, and I like to joke that I grew up in the darkroom. As a very young child, I loved to watch images arise in a tray of developer. Sometimes I was allowed to tip the tray or poke an image with wooden tongs. My father’s photography was exclusively black and white. For me, because of my early conditioning, a photograph is black and white.
I realize there are many beautiful color images and amazing color photographers. However, I think color can be distracting when there is an idea to get across or a compelling emotion to be felt. For these reasons, I gravitate towards black and white photography. An exception would be when color is the story. For instance, many of my images from the Atoll Stroll in Springdale are in color because the event was so colorful. To avoid the color by making only black and white images would have been negligent.
MK: Was there a specific point in time where you felt that you had found your voice in photography and became satisfied with the direction of your work? Do you ever truly find yourself in a good place with your images, or are you always searching for more?
JW: I am never quite satisfied that I have created the image I hoped for. I am always looking for ways to improve my work whether it is by returning for more advantageous light or angles on composition. I am, however, satisfied with the direction my work is going. Photography at this stage of my life represents a way to integrate my beliefs and values. The portfolios and galleries I have created are manifestations of these values.
Atoll Stroll Festivities, Marshallese People Gather, Springdale, Arkansas, July 31, 2021
How do I see the Marshallese People? They are Strong. Springdale, Arkansas, July 28, 2021
How do I see the Marshallese People? They are Beautiful. Springdale, Arkansas, July 31, 2021
How do I see the Marshallese People? They are Loving. Springdale, Arkansas, July 31, 2021
Atoll Stroll Festivities, Mother and Son, Springdale, Arkansas, July 31, 2021
MK: With regard to creativity and the projects you take on. Do you feel it is better to create work that fits a particular style for yourself, branch out and try new things, or better to leave yourself open to possibilities that happen organically?
JW: I would say yes to all of the above with an exceptions. I feel it is more important to create work that fits a particular theme rather than a particular style. At the same time, I want to have a style, to branch out, to experiment and to be flexible and open-minded. For example, I believe my strongest images are environmental portraits. However, during the pandemic, I was unable to photograph people. Rather than stay home and wait for a vaccine to be developed, I regularly traveled to remote areas of New Mexico, to tiny villages near inspirational landscapes where I saw no other individuals. It was necessary to rethink composition and lighting and to find a new theme for this body of work. The theme that arose was the decline and abandonment of rural New Mexico where the natural beauty continues to be outstanding.
MK: Any thoughts on what the future might bring for your photography once you’ve completed The Bikini Project?
JW: I believe that what I have said through my photography represents the extent of what I want to say, but that I can say it better. I would like my work to be more focused on my themes. I want to hone my craft and practice new techniques. I want to reach a better balance between documentary and fine art photography that represents the best of these two approaches. And I would like to share my work more widely.
You can find more of Jane’s work on her website here.
All photographs, ©Jane Whitmore
