Description

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Toba Pato Tucker, who has photographed the Navajo in the Southwest, the Shinnecock and Montauk Indians on eastern Long Island, and the Pueblo people of New Mexico and Arizona, now creates a record of the Onondaga Nation, the Native people who have inhabited the hills of central New York for fifteen thousand years.

Using a simple black backdrop and available daylight, her portraits show the timeless, contemplative images that reify the spirit that has maintained the Onondaga for centuries. Of her work Tucker has said, "Native Americans are an ancient people striving to retain their traditional way of life and integrity while confronting modern society and the dominant culture. I want to record them, for history and for art, at the end of the twentieth century."

About the Author

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Toba Pato Tucker, a documentary portrait photographer working primarily with Native Americans, has been recording continuity and change in American culture for two decades. Her photographs are included in the permanent collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, and the Heard Museum, among others. Her work is widely exhibited in museums, libraries, and universities throughout the country. Recent books include Pueblo Artists: Portraits, and Heber Springs Portraits: Continuity and Change in the World Disfarmer Photographed. Her work has been published in Life and Native Peoples magazines.