fig. 1: Ghost Dance Remnant . Liquid light on muslin
Native American Women Photographers As Storytellers
Professor Emerita, New Mexico State University For Native American women photographers, identity is expressed in many ways. In Ghost Dance Remnant (fig. 1), Pamela Shields carefully constructs a collage that combines objects and images that recall specific aspects of her community's history. Her collages are complex visual stories that invite a complex reading. She uses Indian signifiers heaped one upon the other that take the viewer back into the past with her. Theresa Harlan (Director of the Carl Gorman Museum at the University of California, Davis) a Native American critic who has written perceptively and extensively about Native American women's art, calls Shields and other Native women artists "message carriers." They carry messages about Native cultures through their photography. The artists experiment with a wide range of photographic techniques. While sometimes women use straight photography and the silver print, at other times they use oil paint on photographs, hand-tint black and white photographs, photomontage, collage, or even use liquid light on muslin. In other words, they employ all the various techniques available to contemporary photographers. | |
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