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"Views from the Reservation is filled with spiritual power and insightful observations. [...] The pictures are beautiful; the circumstances are not. This book is a wake-up call, for those who are unaware of or have not considered the historic and current issues of Indigenous Americans and the Oglala Lakota Tribe in particular." -- Zeke Magazine
Photographer John Willis has long been aware of the exploitation that can occur when photographers enter communities as outsiders. So, in 1992, when he first visited the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he assured elders of the Oglala Lakota nation that he would not exhibit any of his images. Over time, however, Willis earned the respect and trust of the community, and the elders urged him to show his work and create this book so that others might better understand Lakota land and life.
Willis has returned to the reservation every year since 1992, and he has come to grasp and interpret this place as few others have. Views from the Reservation, first published to widespread acclaim in 2010 and now presented in an updated and expanded edition, remains a gift--a wopila--that is meant to open the minds, eyes, and hearts of outsiders to the life, culture, and conditions of the Oglala Lakota people.
Along with his insightful and accomplished images, Willis has enlisted other voices to offer a more complete story: Lakota elders and high school students from the Pine Ridge Reservation offer powerful poems; writer Kent Nerburn contributes an original essay; Emil Her Many Horses, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, tells his story of growing up on the rez; Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, apologizes for the government's abuse of native people; Oglala Lakota artist Dwayne Wilcox shares his provocative ledger drawings; and members of the Reddest family present their amazing photo collection.
Views from the Reservation is a masterful book that has been praised by the Lakota people for its honesty, spirit, and depth. It offers the chance for native peoples and outsiders alike to appreciate and respect the Pine Ridge Reservation from contemporary and historical points of view, with art and storytelling leading the way.
About the Author
Nerburn, Kent: - Kent Nerburn is the author of fourteen books on spiritual values and American Indian themes, including Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder (New World Library, 1994), Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy (HarperCollins, 2005), and The Wolf of Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows (New World Library, 2009). His Website is www.kentnerburn.com.Willis, John: - John Willis is Professor of Photography at Marlboro College and a co-founder of the In-Sight Photography Project (www.insight-photography.org) and Exposures Cross Cultural Youth Photography Program (www.exposures-program.com). He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fel-lowship in Photography after Views from the Reservation was first published in 2010. His photographs are in more than sixty collections, including the Amon Carter Museum, Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, J. Paul Getty Museum, Heard Museum, High Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Muse-um of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale University Gallery of Art. His other books are Recycled Realities, a collaborative effort with photographer Tom Young (Center for American Places, 2005) and Views from the Reservation: A New Edition (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019). His Website is www.jwillis.net.
Photographer John Willis has long been aware of the exploitation that can occur when photographers enter communities as outsiders. So, in 1992, when he first visited the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he assured elders of the Oglala Lakota nation that he would not exhibit any of his images. Over time, however, Willis earned the respect and trust of the community, and the elders urged him to show his work and create this book so that others might better understand Lakota land and life.
Willis has returned to the reservation every year since 1992, and he has come to grasp and interpret this place as few others have. Views from the Reservation, first published to widespread acclaim in 2010 and now presented in an updated and expanded edition, remains a gift--a wopila--that is meant to open the minds, eyes, and hearts of outsiders to the life, culture, and conditions of the Oglala Lakota people.
Along with his insightful and accomplished images, Willis has enlisted other voices to offer a more complete story: Lakota elders and high school students from the Pine Ridge Reservation offer powerful poems; writer Kent Nerburn contributes an original essay; Emil Her Many Horses, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, tells his story of growing up on the rez; Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, apologizes for the government's abuse of native people; Oglala Lakota artist Dwayne Wilcox shares his provocative ledger drawings; and members of the Reddest family present their amazing photo collection.
Views from the Reservation is a masterful book that has been praised by the Lakota people for its honesty, spirit, and depth. It offers the chance for native peoples and outsiders alike to appreciate and respect the Pine Ridge Reservation from contemporary and historical points of view, with art and storytelling leading the way.
About the Author
Nerburn, Kent: - Kent Nerburn is the author of fourteen books on spiritual values and American Indian themes, including Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder (New World Library, 1994), Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy (HarperCollins, 2005), and The Wolf of Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows (New World Library, 2009). His Website is www.kentnerburn.com.Willis, John: - John Willis is Professor of Photography at Marlboro College and a co-founder of the In-Sight Photography Project (www.insight-photography.org) and Exposures Cross Cultural Youth Photography Program (www.exposures-program.com). He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fel-lowship in Photography after Views from the Reservation was first published in 2010. His photographs are in more than sixty collections, including the Amon Carter Museum, Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, J. Paul Getty Museum, Heard Museum, High Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Muse-um of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale University Gallery of Art. His other books are Recycled Realities, a collaborative effort with photographer Tom Young (Center for American Places, 2005) and Views from the Reservation: A New Edition (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019). His Website is www.jwillis.net.
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