Saturday, January 3, 2009

An Inheritance Of Arrowheads

A Purpose in Life...To Photograph Tribal Nations

Npcc183_3
It all began when I inherited a few ancient stone tools and arrowheads. That was when the moment when I dreamed up this awesome career, at least for me anyway. This self-created job description was to "specialize and photograph American Indian culture's for the who's who in publishing".

Now after several years of travel to document Native America, reading hundreds of books and speaking with a variety of tribal elders, I dreamed of another project. Through much research, I came across many inspirational speeches from tribal members past and present who eloquently spoke of their spiritual philosophy on living.

In fact, this obsession with photographing American Indian tribes and to read their leaders quotes, inspired me so deeply that I set out to self-published a book. Titled 'Voice of the Spirit: Words of Wisdom From Indian Country USA' this photo book was designed to include my own personal selection of 100 of my favorite photographs I've had the honor to capture along with snippets of meaningful quotes so eloquently spoken by Native people recorded throughout post-contact.

Here is a small sample of photographs and exerpts from my book 'Voice of the Spirit'.

Bnsh003_4
"Knowledge is inherent in all things. The world is a library" -Chief Standing Bear


Cams002
"When you see a new trail, or a footprint you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing" -Uncheedah

Bnar437_2
"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself" -Chief Seattle

No comments:

Post a Comment