Facing Diversity Conference: Leveling the Field in Photographic Arts
2010 Conference of Society for Photographic Educators
The Society for Photographic Education is hosting its annual conference in Philadelphia, USA, in March 2010 with a focus on diversity in photographic practice. Sessions will include discussion by photographers and educators about collaboration, photography & film making with teens, photography by working class people, blind people… Of particular interest are the featured speakers Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie and Veronica Passalacqua who convened the 2nd Indigenous Photography Gathering at UC Davis in April 2009.
Below is an excerpt from the abstract on their upcoming talk at the conference:
Historical photographs of Native American and global Indigenous communities have, and in some cases continue, to contribute to the construction of perceived identities and visual stereotypes of native peoples. However, this outsider’s perspective reveals more about the non-native photographer than the subject when compared to the works of Indigenous photographers who are visually documenting their own communities and regions. From as early as 1899, Native American photographers have been working in the medium; commissioned for portraits, documenting events, and recording daily life and community in this early form of visual sovereignty. Indigenous photographers and their sitters had the agency to choose when, where and the manner in which they wished to be imaged and documented.
Contemporary Indigenous photographers continue this practice while also being uniquely positioned to counter these earlier misrepresentations created by non-native photographers. The field of Native American photography is supported by a rich and continuous history that spans across the continent and is embedded in contemporary works that encompass a wide range of genres and subject matter including documentary, landscape, portraiture, political activism and (re)visioning, by utilizing a variety of imaging and printing techniques.