After researching, Native American photographers, I came across Matika Wilbur! She is of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribes in Washington. I feel her photography is VERY important, especially in this day and time. I've heard and read absolutely absurd stories of people ignorantly stated "I thought Indians were extincted"... how ignorant can one be right?? beside the ignorance of people who are unware of what is going on in their own country, Matika also wants to bury the stereotypical photographs that people are use to making and seeing. She wants to capture her people in the here and now.... Any who....
What is great about Matika Wilbur is that, she has started a documentary project that is dedicated to traveling all over the United States to photograph individuals from every tribe. The project is called Project 562, of course for the 562 federally recognized tribes in the US. She states that, "My goal is to represent Native people of every tribe. By exposing the astonishing variety of the Indian presence and reality at this juncture, we will build cultural bridges, abandon stereotypes, and renew and inspire our national legacy.”
Where and how she places her subject in the photographs, show how important this project is to her and her people. Her choice in not making a lot of her photographs so saturated really gives us the chance to actually appreciate WHO is in the photo and have us not so distracted by what else is going on in the photos. Her project and her photography is the best, in my opinion, that I have posted all semester. check out more of her work its AMAZING.
Wow - these are really interesting. First, they remind me a lot of the work our own Greta Pratt does, which I love - capturing people authentically in their surroundings. And, of course, they are formally stunning portraits - her lighting, especially, is wonderful. I'm trying to decide how I feel about her manipulation of color - I think it works well in some photographs but becomes a bit distracting in others (I think when the difference in color between subject and background is subtle it works well, but when the difference is too stark, for me it takes the subjects out of their surroundings - does that make sense?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thanks for sharing this - awesome!
There is a Swinomish reservation right outside of my hometown in Washington!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting series though! It is really part of America's history I think a lot of people try to avoid but it is very important to remember what we did to make them have reservations, in the first place.
The images are beautiful. I'm not usually interested in images that have such low saturation but these were done very tastefully! The variety of poses her subjects are in allow for additional interest while viewing.