$45.00 U.S. (trade discount)
E-book TBD.
Hardcover (PLC)
192 pages with 82 duotones by the author,
3 color and 31 black-and-white historic
photographs, and 7 color ledger drawings
10.0″ x 11.0″ upright/portrait
ISBN 978–1–938086–63–2
Forthcoming in July 2019
Distributed by Casemate/IPM
www.casemateipm.com
Published in association with the American Land Publishing Project.
by John Willis
with contributions from the Lakota people and an essay by Kent Newburn
Finalist for a 2021 Lucie Foundation Photo Book Award
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.
About
About the Author
John Willis is Professor of Photography at Marlboro College and a co-founder of the In-Sight Photography Project (www.insight-photography.org) and Exposures Cross Cultural Youth Photography Program (www.exposures-program.com). 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, Heard Museum, High Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Library of Congress, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 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, among others. His other books are Recycled Realities (Center for American Places in 2005), a collaborative effort with photographer Tom Young, and Mni Wiconi: Honoring the Water Protectors and the Ongoing Struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty (George F. Thompson Publishing, 2019). His Website is www.jwillis.net.
About the Contributor
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 (New World Library, 1994), which was adapted into an acclaimed movie in 2017, Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy (HarperCollins, 2005), The Wolf of Twilight: An Indian Elder’s Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows (New World Library, 2009), Voices in the Stones: Life Lessons from the Nature Way (New World Library, 2016), and Dancing with the Gods: Reflections on Life and Art (Canongate Books, 2018). His Website is www.kentnerburn.com.
Slide Show
Praise
“Views from the Reservation is filled with spiritual power and insightful observations. Many of the photographs have accompanying notation which supply welcome background material. Willis also contributes some excellent writing in the Notes on Selected Plates, Opening Prayer, Closing Prayer, Artist’s Statement, About the Craft, and Coda. Plus, he has created a moving compilation of tribal music online.”
—Frank Ward, ZEKE Magazine (read full review here, pdf)
“Views from the Reservation goes well beyond what others have written about and discussed regarding the tribal people who live within reservation boundaries. John Willis captures not only the day-to-day challenges of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, but more importantly the true pride of the people. He shows in vivid detail that the culture is truly being passed from one generation to another. As many elders have told me, ‘This is our life, and John Willis has captured it.’ As this book shows, the residents of Pine Ridge are truly mending the circle of life. Thank you, Mr. Willis, for your great gift. Views from the Reservation is a must-read for all ages.”
—Gerard Baker, retired Assistant Director for American Indian Relations at the National Park Service and retired Superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Monument
“This is a beautiful, painful book: a soulful reminder of a dark part of our past and present, an elegant road to a better future.”
—Ken Burns, filmmaker
“John Willis’s book looks to redefine a special place—the Pine Ridge Reservation—and, in doing so, he offers a new model for tackling the issues of place, community, and history.”
—Linda Connor, Professor of Photography, San Francisco Art Institute
“The Lakota say that it is the white man’s gift to know how everything works. It is the Lakota’s gift to know how everything fits together. John Willis’s gift is to weave together many talents, observations, and works of art into a beautiful book.”
—Wendy Ewald, former Artist-in-Residence, Amherst College, and MacArthur Fellow
“Views from the Reservation is amazing—incredible pictures and heartfelt stories perfectly told. Every photograph is a classic: carefully seen, lovingly captured, and painstakingly executed.”
—Henry Horenstein, Professor of Photography, Rhode Island School of Design
“With a powerful command of both image and word, John Willis weaves an insightful and richly textured portrait of contemporary Lakota life. Willis’s arresting imagery is more than mere documentation: sobering and uplifting at once, it not only speaks to concerns of the Lakota tribe, which refuses to succumb to centuries of hardship and oppression, but also reveals the tenacity, indomitable will, and inherent spirituality of the people. For the serious student of art, history, and cultural traditions, this beautifully crafted book is a must-read that speaks to the human condition.”
—Zig Jackson, Professor of Photography, Savannah College of Art and Design
My Place
The concept of “my place” is challenging for me. Certainly, there are the places that are integral to my overall “sense of place” and its associations with a sense of comfort, identity, and well being. For years, I have lived in Dummerston, a wonderful small home in the Green Mountains of Vermont, with my wife, Pauline. We have a quiet country setting on a hill overlooking the West River, with a vegetable garden and Pauline’s flowerbeds. My studio is there in my basement, and I teach at Marlboro College, a small liberal arts college nearby. My son, who is now grown and living on his own, is near enough for us to visit regularly, which is a gift.
In 1992, I co-founded The In-Sight Photography Project, a nonprofit organization that offers photography programming to area youth regardless of their ability to pay, and I have been involved with the program as a volunteer ever since. In that same year, I was introduced to a family on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe, and I’ve spent one to three months a year there ever since, staying with people there I relate to as family. I consider the reservation to be another part of my home at this point in my life, especially since Pauline and I met there almost twenty years ago.
Through my work with the college and In-Sight, and being married to an Australian who wants to see the wider world, I’ve learned to appreciate diversity and culture by traveling a fair bit, often with students. The places we go to and experience with fellow travelers, learning from and collaborating with those we visit in host communities, all feels like a piece of home, welcoming enough to consider them as included in my space. I only hope that, in my treading into these various places from Vermont onward, I can share the welcoming feeling and learning with others so they, too, may gain from the shared experiences.
Copyright © 2015 John Willis. All rights reserved.