I’m pretty blown away to announce that my first solo gallery show opens this week at Homer Council on the Arts in Homer, Alaska. ‘At Road’s End: Analog Photography by Clay Duda‘ will hang in the HCOA gallery for the month of May, and in the main hall at South Peninsula Hospital for June and July 2024.

The First Friday opening reception is tomorrow, May 3 from 5-7pm at Homer Council on the Arts, 355 W. Pioneer Ave. in Homer. If you’re in town and interested in that sort of thing, please stop by and say hi.

In the summer of 2023 I was cruising the aisles of the local Salvation Army thrift store in Homer, Alaska and came across some old slide projector carousels and a Crown Royal bag sitting on the shelf. I peaked in the purple bag and pulled out a couple dozen old slides with pictures of family, mountains, glaciers, and other Alaska stuff.

“Pretty neat,” I thought to myself, “maybe I’ll scan these and see what’s on them.”

I paid $1 for the bag and tossed it in my truck. Little did I known the histories and memories it contained.

I was walking back to my car with the wife and kiddo at the end of the parade when some guy in a mini van pulled up next to us.

“What’s going no here? What is all this?” he asked, gesturing to the swarms of people and barricaded streets.

“It’s a parade!” I said. “Actually the 70th Annual Winter Parade,” I added, like I knew what I was talking about.

“Huh,” the guy said. “What’s it for?”

I had never thought about that before… “I don’t really know. They do it about this time every year — probably because it’s winter time and everybody is looking for something to do.”