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Asst. Professors work to preserve American Indian photography collection 10/15/2008  [ARTICLE LINK]

“A Native Intelligence” The Poolaw Photography Project 2008

Horace Poolaw (1906-1984), Kiowa Indian of Oklahoma, produced some 2000 photographs of his community that have received prominent national attention (Smithsonian Institution, Stanford University, the Eastman Kodak Company), but have yet to be adequately stored, catalogued or researched. The 2008 Poolaw Photography Project funded by the University of Wisconsin – Madison consisted of two major activities: A) a four-week internship residency at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) in Chickasha, Oklahoma in which the images were digitally scanned, and B) the planning and preparation of scholarly articles, a traveling exhibition and an accompanying catalogue.

The internship/residency component of the project offered the opportunity for UW Madison students to actively engage in interdisciplinary research with two UW faculty members: Nancy Marie Mithlo, Assistant Professor of Art History and American Indian Studies and Tom Jones, Assistant Professor of Photography. The research team conducted archival cleaning, storing, digitizing and cataloguing a selection of Poolaw negatives and prints, therefore making these images available for wider research while also incorporating the Native American values and aesthetics of the Southern Plains region. The USAO provided in-kind assistance with housing, office and transportation needs, while the Poolaw family provided the original print and negatives for the project team to process, as well as content interpretation.

This preservation work was complemented by the interpretative research the team pursued in conducting interviews with Poolaw family members, regional curators and archivists in Oklahoma on a select body of images. Team members addressed the topics of performance and alterity in self-generated Native American representations, 1925-1955 situating the Poolaw research in the broader field of American photography.

The Poolaw Project equally addresses preservation technology (image enhancement, duplication, storage and handling) as well as the more historic, cultural and content-generated variables of ownership, use and interpretation. This inquiry is based on the premise that visual images can convey a native intelligence and that this orientation (termed “visual realism”) is consistent and discernable, even when in conversation with non-Native tools, clothing, events and posing conventions.

Pulitzer prize winning writer N. Scott Momaday (also a Kiowa Indian) has described Poolaw’s work thus, “His vision of his world, perceived through the lens of a camera, was touched with genius. Looking at his life’s work, we see that he was the equal of such frontier photographers as Edward Curtis, Charles Lummis, and William Soule; and in his native intelligence (my emphasis) and understanding of the indigenous world, he surpassed them” (Momaday 1995). Similarly, anthropologist and Native American photography expert Joanna C. Scherer concludes that there is a “native vision” in photographs by Native Americans that is “noticeably different from non-Indian views” due to access and sensitivity to community concerns (Scherer 1997). Self-generated Native American visual representations have historically begged the question of cultural uniqueness – are photographs by Indians inherently different from those we typically associate with Indian pictures, those taken by Whites or is the camera inherently corrupting and westernizing? Scholars Sol Worth and John Adair engaged this quandary directly by asking the timeless question – “Are images like a language?” (Worth and Adair 1997/1972).

Notions of alterity are key to understanding these basic assumptions of authenticity. The ability to capture and duplicate one’s physical appearance on film moves the Native subject from a passive victim to an alternate position of active producer of modernity. The resulting products are often viewed by non-Natives as contradictory, alternative or even monstrous (Rony 1996). This juxtaposition genre, often referenced as the contrast photo is described by Jane Lydon as “imperfect mimicry” which “rendered Aboriginal people inferior, constructing them as having failed to become white, rather than as exemplifying real cultural difference”(2005). A classic example provided by historian Phillip Deloria in his text Indians in Unexpected Places is Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo in a top hat and driving a car.

Poolaw’s photographic genre is richly informed by contrast scenes – Kiowa tribal “princesses” riding atop a car in a parade, a bare-breasted Native man boxing while sporting a plains headdress, a Native man in a suit drinking tea. Even some contemporary Native American photographers have dismissed these images as “posed” or inauthentic because they cross core aesthetic sensibilities and seem to “mock” or play to an assimilationist standard, yet these images reflect real Native American engagement in performance, vaudeville, commercialization, capitalism and patriotism. Rather than represent a corruption of values, the Poolaw legacy reflects a visual realism, an active engagement in the urbanization, cosmopolitanism and leisure activities of America. I argue that Native identity is visually negotiated in these zones of contact as Native Americans become active agents of their own imaginations.

Does a native sensibility exist within stereotypical conventions? Basso (1979) might regard these visual images as serving social purposes, even when modeled on “Whiteman” behavior. “Playing Indian” or performance in visual media can indicate more than opportunistic aims or simple victimization to exploitative norms. The re-appropriation of images as products of active Native imaginations restores integrity and agency to Native producers and their communities. Phil Deloria surmises, “In making Indian images, native actors sought to participate in a struggle waged on the cultural front, particularly through the developing forms of mass media” (2004, 104).

Project Report October 2008

The Horace Poolaw Photography Project 2008 consists of two major tasks: A) to clean, restore, scan, archive, and catalogue the collection of approximately 2,000 images and B) to complete major scholarly articles relating to the theoretical themes present in the legacy of this early American Indian photographer. The archival work was completed on site at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) in Chickasha, OK from June 4, 2008 to July 14, 2008 with the assistance of one undergraduate student and two graduate students, along with a University of Oklahoma art history intern completing her master's thesis on Poolaw who volunteered with the project. The UW PA who received tuition support with the project is continuing the cataloguing process fall 2008, using a qualitative software program (ATLAS.ti. See: http://www.atlasti.com/), inputting audio and contextual data with the images scanned.

To date with the project we have successfully: A) Cleaned and re-stored all 1,400 negatives provided to us into archival sleeves and containers, placing the materials on temporary loan with our host institution - the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma; B) Scanned all 1,400 images and saved the data on both hard drives and DVD formats; C) Built a cataloguing system of all known photos in the collection, cross-referencing with multiple sources of data, including previous exhibits, publications in which the materials are found and indicating what provenance is known. This catalogue was developed using Native American archival protocols and nomenclature, drawing on extensive primary and secondary sources; D) Trained three UW students (and one OU student) in the technical, ethical and aesthetic considerations of cultural heritage preservation; E) Collaborated with USAO representatives in conceptualizing the curation of a traveling exhibition with a tentative opening date of 2012, including scouting appropriate locations, researching potential grant resources and developing a curatorial theme; F) Finalized an object list selection for the traveling exhibition and obtained copyright release of duplication of the 160 images selected. No other extensive copyright arrangements have ever been made with any other researchers using this 80 year old collection, indicating the high degree of trust built during our research project and the professional standards we utilized handling the collection.

Another aspect of the project that was central to our success was the community-based research perspective we applied. Poolaw family members incorporated our residence in Oklahoma with tribal gatherings, hosting and honoring our group. We were taken to locations where Horace Poolaw himself photographed - downtown Anadarko and Carnegie, the Kiowa summer dances on July 4th, the back roads of Kiowa country including the famous site of Rainy Mountain Church and American Indian Expo fairgrounds. We were provided data by Kiowa elders who spent hours identifying the photographs with us. This community interaction was a rich and satisfying experience for our Wisconsin contingent, many of whom had not traveled to this part of the country before or interacted with the Southern Plains tribes.

Important scholarly work has been initiated with inclusion of the Poolaw Project in Mithlo’s book review “A Danish Photographer of Idaho Indians” published in
Visual Anthropology 2008, Volume 21 Issue 5 in which she applies her preliminary research findings on Poolaw to Benedicte Wrenstead's photographs. More publications are planned upon completion of the data being secured in the ATLAS.ti software program so that we may analyze and author our individual statements on the Poolaw legacy in context. A ten year plan is in development that will include a traveling exhibition, catalogue and symposium. Potential partners include the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Stanford University, and the Eastman House.

In October of 2008, Mithlo and Linda Poolaw met with the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma President John Feaver to discuss future opportunities for collaboration with the Poolaw Photography Project. Michael Nealeigh, Vice President for University Advancement and Julie Bohannon, Director of Alumni Development joined in this important conversation to identify immediate projects including: A) the authorship of a traveling exhibition grant narrative and budget, B) the design of a cumulative Poolaw digitization project at USAO, C) the development of undergraduate research projects upon completion of the cataloging process and D) professional consultation with Poolaw family members regarding copyright, ownership and loan issues.

Project leaders Tom Jones and Nancy Marie Mithlo (with assistance from Project Assistant Andrea Brdek) presented their findings at the UW Madison Visual Culture Conference Parallax: Changing Perspectives in Visual Culture titled “Photography and the Technologies of Empire and Race” held November 4-7, 2008.