London School of Journalism

Photography and the New Native American Aesthetic

As I began to look at the prints, I realized each roll of film formed a complete photo narrative
[Leslie Marmon Silko]

Throughout history different cultures have embraced different aesthetics, and expressed these aesthetics through artwork that is unique to a respective culture both in form and style. This phenomenon is now manifesting itself in a new way with regard to the use of photography among contemporary Native Americans. The culture of the various facets of Native America has its roots in the art of oral tradition; the passing of myths, stories, and history from generation to generation has been a mainstay of American Indian cultural heritage. As of late, some modern Native American artists have cited photography as the medium with which they hope to carry their culture into the twenty-first century. Additionally, in a world that is so dependent upon technology, it seems unlikely that a culture reliant on the passing of history orally would be able to survive extinction. Photography would enable the culture of Native Americans to be preserved on film.

The commentary and artwork of Lee Marmon and Leslie Marmon Silko, contemporary Native Americans, attests to the theory that photography is the modern alternative to the oral tradition. Through Marmon's photography and Silko's prose, the two create many sound arguments for suggesting that photography is analogous to oral tradition for contemporary indigenous peoples.

However, one must question the validity of such arguments, regardless of how strong they appear to be. Many questions arise when reflecting upon the idea of photography as a new medium for the oral tradition. Is it possible for a society that is so firmly rooted in one tradition to simply switch to something so drastically different? Although oral tradition is subject to interpretation, is it not a less subjective medium that photography, in which one photograph can mean something completely different to two people? Although Silko's suggestions seem valid, one cannot help but wonder how much, or how little, the oral tradition and photography could possibly have in common, and how a society that has held on to the same stories for millennia could forsake this tried-and-true medium for something as transient as photography.

As I began to look at the prints, I realized each roll of film formed a complete photo narrative (Silko 181)

In this regard, the photography and the oral tradition become closely intertwined. In the art of storytelling, the storyteller is the master of the tale; the words emitted from the storyteller's mouth form the stories that have allowed Native American culture to survive. The photographer becomes this representative storyteller. What he or she chooses to depict in a given photograph is likened to the words he or she would speak if a story were being told.

Silko discusses how a roll of film can be both memorable and horrifying. She speaks, perhaps hypothetically, of an instance in which she developed a roll of film and spotted a 'menacing black sedan' in the corner of several photographs. When she views the developed roll in its totality, she spins an intricate tale of how the seemingly insignificant car alludes to a story of the abduction of a woman, who was later murdered and buried in the desert. In this example, Silko describes how her idea of photo narrative operates. A roll of film is like a story without words. In looking at the roll of film she describes, a Native American viewer is inclined to create a story based upon the photographs. This act of creating stories is not something that can be easily understood by 'white America', as the culture of oral tradition is, in and of itself, a foreign idea. Photo narrative is also significantly similar to the oral tradition in its fragility. Most people are familiar with the layman's oral tradition associated with the game of 'telephone'. Stories, undoubtedly, morph from one generation to the next, and no two people interpret a story in the same manner. This is also the idea behind the Native American's perception of photography. A series of photographs, such as the Silko's black sedan series, might connote the abduction story in the mind of one viewer, while a second viewer might concoct an elaborate story about a cross-country drive in the very same sedan, and so on.