Exhibit Overview
Twenty-six indigenous photographers capture their worlds in the exhibition Our People, Our Land, Our Images. The exhibition offers a rare opportunity to see more than 100 years of their bicultural experiences living in North America, South America, the Mideast, and New Zealand. The exhibition demonstrates the longevity and continuing vitality of native traditions of photography and answers the overdue and continuing need to expand the knowledge of indigenous self-presentation in photography.
Our People, Our Land, Our Images has been carefully constructed as a first person, indigenous account—this curatorial approach is reflected in the choices of photographers and their subjects, the catalog essayists, and thoughtfully designed exhibition collateral. Reflecting contemporary trends, the photographs vary in style, from straightforward documentary accounts to aesthetically altered images combining overlays and collage. They stand united, however, in how they convey their makers’ connections to the land, community, and traditions. Artists’ statements, which appear in the catalog and on the gallery walls, convey the plurality of the indigenous voices and their concerns.
This is a traveling exhibition organized by ExhibitsUSA, and curated by Veronica Passalacqua of the C.N. Gorman Museum at the University of California, Davis.