1978 My First Cover – Alaska Magazine

The upcoming June 2020 issue of Alaska Magazine will include three Mark Kelley images. Alaska Magazine sends advance copies of the magazine to contributors long before it arrives in your mailbox or local newsstand. While paging through my advance copy I noticed that the magazine is celebrating 85 years of publications. Their six-page spread features one cover and one inside image from each decade. I was excited to find that the Seventies features my cover image on the March 1978 issue. I took the photo of the blanket toss from the top of a building at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus in winter of 1977. I was a UAF student from 1974-78, and this was my first cover for any magazine. Since then I have had well over 300 covers on magazines, books, calendars, brochures and annual reports, but I will always remember my first. That same year I was fortunate to have multiple publications in National Geographic publications, including a four-page story on the UAF student fire department in their children’s publication: “The World,” and two images in their book: “Alaska: High Roads to Adventure.” In 1978 I graduated from UAF with a degree in journalism. Now, some 40 years later I would like to thank the University of Alaska for providing me the opportunity, education, and encouragement to chase my dream of spending my life photographing Alaska. Thank you for visiting my web site and be well.