From forbidden snapshots of sacred ceremonies to formal portraits of Native Americans in Victorian dress, photography offers a fascinating record of the complex interplay of attitudes toward the indigenous peoples of the United States. This text examines photographs of Indians by both Native and Anglo Americans, from 1840 to the present, and offers an array of images reproduced with exacting respect for the physical qualities of the photograph as a document. It aims to help us see these photographs not only as historical artifacts but as rich texts that describe their makers as tellingly as their subjects. More than three hundred images relate an important tale of the intrusion of technology into the traditional life of the American Indian, and the political uses both Native Americans and Anglo Americans found for the photograph. These photographs reveal the many agendas of both photographers and American Indians. From images pandering to popular stereotypes to ones that catch troubling realities, these photographs encourage us to consider the photographic enterprise from various perspectives, including those of Native Americans.
Contradicting the common notion that Native American photographers are a recent phenomenon, Indians make their appearance as photographers in this work as early as the 1880s with portrayals as varied and conflicted as any by Anglo Americans. The exciting dynamics among multiple American cultures encountering each other through art and technology is documented here. The text provides authoritative dating of the photographs, biographies of the photographers, and a bibliography.
- ISBN10 0691034893
- ISBN13 9780691034898
- Publish Date 26 September 1994
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 March 2002
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 360
- Language English
- URL https://press.princeton.edu/titles/5550.html