Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisga’a), b. 1955, 1491, from the Feather series (1 of 5), 1992. Platinum print. (26/9280)
McNeil conceived of the Feather series to mark the five-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas and uses the feather to represent indigenous Americans. By replacing the human form with an abstraction, the photographer offers a portrait of Indian people who, after 1491, shared a common history marked by death, but also revival.
