Photographer John Willis has long been aware of the exploitation that can occur when photographers enter communities as outsiders. So, in 1992, when he first visited the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, he assured elders of the Oglala Lakota nation that he would not exhibit any of his images. Over time, however, Willis earned the respect and trust of the community, and the elders urged him to show his work and create this book so that others might better understand Lakota land and life. Willis has returned to the reservation every year since 1992, and he has come to grasp and interpret this place as few others have. Views from the Reservation, first published to widespread acclaim in 2010 and now presented in an updated and expanded edition, remains a gift?a wopila?that is meant to open the minds, eyes, and hearts of outsiders to the life, culture, and conditions of the Oglala Lakota people. Along with his insightful and accomplished images, Willis has enlisted other voices to offer a more complete story: Lakota elders and high school students from the Pine Ridge Reservation offer powerful poems; writer Kent Nerburn contributes an original essay; Emil Her Many Horses, a curator at the National Museum of the American Indian, tells his story of growing up on the rez; Kevin Gover, Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, apologizes for the government's abuse of native people; Oglala Lakota artist Dwayne Wilcox shares his provocative ledger drawings; and members of the Reddest family present their amazing photo collection. Views from the Reservation is a masterful book that has been praised by the Lakota people for its honesty, spirit, and depth. It offers the chance for native peoples and outsiders alike to appreciate and respect the Pine Ridge Reservation from contemporary and historical points of view, with art and storytelling leading the way. AUTHOR: John Willis is Professor of Photography at Marlboro College and a co-founder of the In-Sign Photography Project and Exposures Cross Cultural Youth Photography Program. His photographs are in more than sixty collections, including the Amon Carter Museum, George Eastman House International Museum, Heard Museum, High Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Library of Congress, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale University Gallery of Art. 82 duotones, 3 colour, 31 b/w historic photographs and 7 colour ledger drawings
Author Biography:
John Willis is Professor of Photography Emeritus at Marlboro College and a co-founder of the In-Sight Photography Project and Exposures Cross Cultural Youth Photography Program. He was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Photography in 2010. His photographs are in more than sixty collections, including the Amon Carter Museum, Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, J. Paul Getty Museum, Heard Museum, High Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, National Museum of the American Indian, Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Yale University Gallery of Art. His other books are Mni Wiconi / Water Is Life: Honoring the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and Everywhere in the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019), Views from the Reservation: A New Edition (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019), and Recycled Realities, a collaborative effort with photographer Tom Young (Center for American Places, 2006). Kent Nerburn is the author of sixteen books on American Indian themes and spiritual values, including Neither Wolf Nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder, which was adapted into an acclaimed movie in 2017, Voices in the Stones: Life Lessons from the Nature Way, and Dancing with the Gods: Reflections on Life and Art.
