Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisga’a), b. 1955, Masks, Masks & More Masks, from the Tonto & Lone Ranger series, 2006. Platinum print. Courtesy of the artist.
Tonto has deputized his sidekick to unmask a hoax. A Koskimo Kwakwaka’wakw mask falls from the face of a man impersonating an Indian for Curtis’s camera. (The original masked man can be found in volume ten of Curtis’s The North American Indian.) Amused by what he has witnessed, McNeil himself photographs the scene. His presence reminds us that photographs are staged creations, not to be accepted as unquestioned truths.
