Larry McNeil (Tlingit/Nisga’a), b. 1955, Sunrise Stroll Across the Wastelands, from The Home Planet, Global Climate Change series, 2013. Platinum print. Courtesy of the artist.
Raven is known among the Tlingit to have created the world. Of the deepest platinum black, he surveys wreckage strewn across a post-apocalyptic landscape, casting a shadow upon a smashed camera. Although the bleak setting suggests photography’s demise, Raven instead announces a new beginning for the medium. With Raven’s connection to the camera, McNeil asserts the power of American Indians to create their own photographic representations of and for themselves.
