Posted on 11/16/2011 1:18:10 PM PST by Utah Binger
Photographs by John K. Hillers from the John Wesley Powell Expedition of 1872
Mt. Carmel, UTAH – October 12, 2011 - From October 15, 2011 through December 31, 2011, the Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts will present Utah Tribes: “Myself in the Water” – Photographs by John K. Hillers from the John Wesley Powell Expedition of 1872. This is only the second large-scale exhibition of these rare, original prints since the Foundation obtained them in 1999.
Photographer John (Jack) K. Hillers (1843-1925) made the 116 images of the Utah Tribes Exhibit while he was working with the legendary U.S. explorer and scientist John Wesley Powell during the federally funded survey of the Colorado Plateau in 1872-1875. Powell was not only interested in the geology of the Colorado River region, but also in the native populations who dwelt in the environs of the plateaus.
In the fall of 1872 Powell set out to photograph the Kaibab Paiutes, who at the time were settled in their winter camp at the mouth of Kanab Canyon, not far from the Mormon settlement of Kanab. Earlier attempts to photograph the Paiutes had been unsuccessful because the Indians feared the camera. But now, accompanied by southern Utah Mormon leader Jacob Hamblin, the so-called “buckskin apostle” to the Indians, Powell met with the leader of the Kaibab Paiute band, Chuarumpeak. With Hamblin’s reassurance, the Paiutes were at last convinced the camera would do them no harm, and they gave Hillers the Indian name of “Myself in the Water,” symbolic of his camera being able to capture their own reflections in the water in his magic wooden box.
Thus began a long association of mutual trust between Powell and the Paiutes, which freely opened access to Hillers’ cameras. Many of the pictures in the Utah Tribes Exhibit are the result.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a special reproduction portfolio of 8 simulated photogravures, available for purchase through the Thunderbird Foundation. A show description and preview of close-up detail images from Utah Tribes: “Myself in the Water” is featured on the Foundation website.
Not Indians. They’re Native American Lamanites.
Is that where Sand ‘Island’ is located?
There are a lot of images there...
Back foul Temptor!
Acts 26:28
"Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?"
(But I am in Biloxi.)
I'll have to check when I get home.
We have stayed at an older motel in Bluff before, but cannot recall the name.
It had the same decour (sp?) in the bathroom as our home had when we bought it - Gas Station modern was how we described it. I think I have a picture somewhere
I spotted it using GoogleEarth®.
It was the Kokopelli Inn.
———Is that where Sand ‘Island’ is located?——
No, Sand island is actually the starting point for the down river adventure. It is a couple of miles downstream from the motel and actually right by the hiway. You are correct, there are many many glyphs at Sand Island but the ones at the Chaco Wash junction are larger and somewhat different. There are many depictions of humans with large and complex headgear.
Now you’ve got me all riled up. I’m chomping at the bit to get back out there.
We learned the Chaco Park headquarters was being rebuilt and enlarged and was closed. I put off the trip till next year for that reason. Camping in Chaco Canyon is almost a religious experience.
InDEED!
Just DRIVING there will get one to prayin'!!
Five I’s, that gets you triple points!
Yatzee! no wait...
Amen, Brother!
I have no idea how much gas I've burned up; driving out there from central Indiana, to sleep in Ol' Blue, my 1 ton 77 Chevy van, and wander the rocks and sand!
SOMEtime in my distant past, the word MOAB, entered my brain from somewhere, and I just HAD to go see - very similar to the compulsion found in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
I think I have about ALL of Kelsey's guide books; gobs of topo maps (WAY before the word/acronym GPS entered the general vocabulary of the world) and hundreds of pictures from when they still were found on some kind of obsolete plastic material!
but I left out an ‘a’...
I was there last summer on a loop over the top of Powell to check out how much water had moved up at Hite, so we went through Nat. Bridges and worked our way down to M. H., Bluff and went to Kayenta. They’ve all gotten used to being in the movies...
They hired a real good webmaster...
Indeed they have!!
And, one simply HAS to have a cheeseburger from Twin Rocks cafe made with NAvajo fry bread - EXCELLANT!!
(Made with ONLY Blue Bird® flour; of COURSE!)
May I offer for your enjoyment, this is one of my favorite reference websites...
I’ve planned many a trip because of an article I’ve read here...
as for Moab, sadly, it’s gone the way of Aspen and Park City...
big water and Page are I think the next on the hit list for yupps and dinks...
I’ve been hauling Indian sandstone down to Big water for a gated community (7 figures) and of course thay want it to look real so they buy 100 tons of sandstone from the other side of the planet...
gotta go load next weeks load of bacon for the bay.
BBL
Technology has spoiled us.
Modern Art Photography
If we consider the history of creating imagery from primitive to the modern there must be certain timelines that account for how things happened. The ancients in the region recorded their thoughts, left messages and depicted their lives on the canyon walls, in their caves and on any media they found useful. Certainly all cultures found their own way to communicate; the talented few always came forward as their recorders of history. Were these talented few born with the creativity? Or did they develop this talent through intensive training in the technical process?
If we spring forward a thousand years we have the benefit of watching the evolution of the form. Although photography dates back to Leonardo da Vinci's inventions during the Renaissance, the modern camera was invented in the 1830s with daguerreotypes. The first cameras were large and bulky, so people came to the photographer's studio to have their pictures taken. This meant that the main purpose was to record what people looked like, which could be done more quickly and inexpensively than ever before. This has had a profound impact on art, and has prompted many artists to explore new styles. And so, modernism was born.
In painting and printmaking the form evolved into what was called “the new art,” beginning with the impressionists in about 1870. Photography continued recording the accuracy of what people looked like or to record history as evidenced during the Civil War with Mathew Brady. Here in Utah C.R. Savage was one of the first to record the important history. In southern Utah Jack Hillers accompanied John Wesley Powell in 1872 in the explorations of the Grand Canyon.
The science of the form drove their technique. But was it art? Most imagery was posed and not impromptu as evidenced by E.S Curtis and his circle. Images looked stilted and did not leave much to the imagination. But suddenly we spring forward to the turn of the twentieth century and the group formed in New York by Alfred Stieglitz.
Stieglitz was originally a leading figure in the promotion of the idea that photography harbored the same aesthetic potential as painting. He fostered the progress of artistic photography in this direction by showcasing the work of young photographers who challenged the dominant conception of the medium. Instead of showcasing the use of photography as a tool for documenting or depicting the details of nature, these young photographers attempted to show, primarily through imitation of painterly styles, that photography could attain status as an art form.
This new approach to art photography was inspirational for all that followed the form. They strive to do more than record the images of nature, rather they make a serious effort in creating art; art that is beyond simple imagery. This approach to modernism was introduced to the painter Maynard Dixon in 1920 when he met the young New York photographer Dorothea Lange. Dixon began distilling and simplifying his approach.
This period, 1920-1960, brought Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and several other modernists to these regions for the purpose of making fine art photography. These were the purists with serious bias about their art form in black and white. Much of the art occurred in the darkroom. And then there was the life of photographic paper. The argument was that color would not hold. As color was introduced in the late thirties the art photographers held steady with their beliefs about the power of black and white. Several pioneers broke away from the old beliefs as papers improved with newer coatings and a better lifespan. Eliot Porter and David Muench in particular continued with the science of color as an art form.
And then digital happened. All of the old ideas about the art form changed.
After thirty years of work in all the above, Modern Art Photography was born. Suddenly new converts having found their own voices in this new digital world. The technical side of the problem is conquered with powerful technology from Canon and Nikon. The science is now taken care of and it is only left up to the artist to find his own voice in this brave new world.
Yup!
Californicated to the MAX!
I got chased down in Big Water for driving thru a guys yard!
(It LOOKED like just a bunch of sand tracks to me!)
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