Aboriginal Life Among the Navajoe Indians, Near Old Fort Defiance, N.M.
<p>An 1868 treaty, signed at gunpoint, allowed the Navajo back onto ancestral lands in Arizona after 20 years of raids and slaughter capped by the genocidal “Long Walk” east to captivity in New Mexico.</p> <p>This richly hued picture shows labor clearly—drying ears of corn and a double loom are in brilliant focus—while the laborers appear blurred and idle. But these four Navajo men still seem stubbornly present. The one half-hidden at the back, and the one who turns his face away, may be actively resisting portrayal. Such presence and tacit resistance both run counter to romanticized images of the Navajo as actively dangerous or disappearing—images that already were fast becoming clichés.</p> <p>See also: Robin Kelsey, Archive Style (2007); James C. Faris, Navajo and Photography (1996)</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1873
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 27.5 × 20.2 cm (10 7/8 × 8 in.); Mount: 49.9 × 39.4 cm (19 11/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Timothy O'Sullivan
Artist
Printmaking
Timothy O'Sullivan was an American photographer who documented the American West and geological surveys during the 1870s, producing some of the earliest large-format landscape photographs of the region. Working with wet collodion on glass plates, he captured vast canyon formations, mining operations, and indigenous settlements with a formal, architectural precision that transformed landscape photography into a scientific instrument. His work appeared in official U.S. Geological Surveys and established photography as essential to westward exploration and territorial mapping.
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More by Timothy O'Sullivan
Alpine Lake, in the Cerro Blanco Mountains, Colorado. One of a group of ten lakes at the main head of Ute Creek. 11.000 feet above sea-level. Cerro Blanco Peak rises 14.269 feet abov the sea, lying to the westward, No. 45 from the series "Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian"
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
Jicarilla Apache Brave and Squaw, lately wedded. Abiquiu Agency, New Mexico
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
Ute Braves, of the Kah-poh-teh band, Northern New Mexico, in "full dress", No. 40 from the series "Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian"
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
Cañon, Valley of the Conejos River, looking south from vicinity of "Lost Lakes", No. 36 from the series "Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian"
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
One of the group of Pagosa Hot Springs, showing incrustation on the surface. Much prized by the Indians and miners on account of supposed healing qualities. Principal mineral element, Sulphate of Soda, No. 38 from the series "Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian"
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
Shee-zah-nan-tan, Jicarilla Apache Brave in characteristic Costume, Northern New Mexico, No. 42 from the series "Geographical Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian"
1874 · Albumen print, stereo
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Timothy O'Sullivan
- Year
- 1873
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 27.5 × 20.2 cm (10 7/8 × 8 in.); Mount: 49.9 × 39.4 cm (19 11/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1873-088873
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified