Changing the Tone: Contemporary American Indian Photographers
In addition to Edward S. Curtis: One Hundred Masterworks, the museum has organized a complementary exhibition as a way to suggest the social and political implications of his photographs. Expanding our presentation to provide visitors with insight about how Curtis represents his sitters is especially important given the various bands of the Cahuilla Indians that occupy this region. Several works by artists of Native American heritage offer a first nation's subjectivity – Shelley Niro, Lewis deSoto, Gerald Clarke, Will Wilson, and Kent Monkman, along with a video by Nicholas Galanin. Encompassing images of the sitters, their cultural heritage, and their relationship to the land, these additions help viewers place Curtis within an historical context. Further, this dialogue with Curtis reveals the critical issues circulating around photography as a documentary medium – i.e. whether it is fact, fiction, or some combination of both. Comparisons represented in photographs by Curtis and contemporary Native Americans have led to collaboration and coordinated programming with the local Agua Caliente Cultural Museum.
