Well heck, I had to go down to the pyramid at Chichén Itzá to see for myself what all this Mayan prophecy stuff was about & share it with you.

2012 Apocalypse Story, from an indigenous perspective. Larry McNeil at the pyramid of Chichén Itzá, in the heart of Mayan country.

Each one of the Mayans I talked to were a bit amused by all the fuss, so I just went down to the beach to talk to the Mayan fishermen. The real ones, not the tourist sport fishermen; the ones like me who fed their families on what they caught. As I stood on the beach watching one of them unloading his catch of the day I walked over and introduced myself as another indigenous man who made a living catching fish way up north. He smiled and we had a conversation very similar to the ones I had with fellow fishermen back home in Alaska, and as it turned out, we spoke the language of fishermen.

“How were the tides? What did you use for bait this time? When was the best time to set the gear? How long did you let your hooks soak?” Of course, my number one question was “What’s your favorite fish recipe for around here?” He said the most heavenly dish was boiled barracuda heads in a broth with mild spices and fresh vegetables from the garden.

I told him that the best recipe from my village was boiled salmon heads with potatoes, onions and just a few spices. If you put in too much stuff, the delicate flavors will be overpowered. We both laughed at how non-fishermen families don’t really know what good fish is actually all about.

What is a journey without including a Coffee Quest? I also have an eternal quest for the most perfect mug of coffee. Oh my god, did I ever find it, and confess to nearly falling to my knees, welcoming the salvation of partaking an earthly gift from the holy spirit. Well, actually from hard working Mayans who grew the finest coffee beans high in the mountains using traditional farming techniques.

If you look carefully, you can see white raven enjoying this sublime coffee too. White raven comes from our own creation story and is the ultimate shape shifter who appreciates fine fish head stews and coffee.

So it went. I’m back home now, dreaming of luscious fish heads, monumental pyramids, totem poles, coffee and freshly sharpened fish hooks.

Story and Photograph copyright Larry Mcneil, 2012 All Rights Reserved. Steal this & you’re bait, man. Fish bait

“Tonto’s TV Script Revision” was a television script where Tonto reached the end of his rope with all the simpleminded stuff he’d dealt with over the years at the lone ranger set. Tonto chuckled to himself at the visual of the lone ranger throwing a hissy-fit about a scene they shot that morning. Apparently Tonto didn’t say “Yes Kemosabe” with enough enthusiasm and the lone ranger nearly cried about it to the director.

Too bad the lone ranger didn't know that Kemosabe translated to "you egotistical shallow peckerhead." This in itself made Tonto laugh to himself again, because he'd been calling the lone ranger "Kemosabe" for years on camera, for all of creation to see.

It was just after midnight and the whole world seemed to be asleep. ”Well heck, screw this,” Tonto whispered to nobody in the darkened room at his middle-class LA home. Kemosabe was about to get a little indigenous makeover, if you get my drift. Tonto was sitting before a typewriter with a blank sheet of paper, quietly meditating about the idea of bringing at least a small measure of meaning to a new Lone Ranger script. “All this shit wears me out, man” he said to his shadow with another chuckle. And he got up to stretch, sat down, took a sip of fresh coffee, then typed relentlessly until it was nearly dawn.

At first light, Tonto paused and stared at the keyboard. There was a slight glow on the keys that he took as a good omen, and finished the last page (Photo Copyright Larry McNeil, 2012)

The producer laughed when Tonto handed him the new script. “What’s this shit? Are you kidding me? We’ve already got all the scripts to the end of the season.” Tonto just gazed at him silently for a few moments and said cooly, “Either you produce this and get everyone to buy into it or I’m walking. Today. If you don’t keep that Kemosabe’s dumbass out of my way, I swear I’m going to kick it right into last week. That’s what this shit is.” They just stared at each other for a few tense moments until the producer said “What the hell, give it to me and I’ll run it by the director.” Tonto simply replied, “No. Try again, Kemosabe.”

Within two weeks, they were shooting Tonto's TV script revision. The aggravated producer blurted out, "The fucking Lone Ranger will lay an egg if he sees the title credits. Not only that, you're not in the writer's union, so we'll have to put in a stinkin' ghost writer. Now get the heck outta here before your contract disappears." Tonto let out a hearty laugh because he could easily visualize Kemosabe with an egg dropping out of his ass.

The gist of the script had Tonto in the role of the new sheriff, authorized by the First Nations Tribal Court to arrest the criminal child abuser Richard Pratt and to bring him to justice. Pratt had started the Carlisle Indian School and it was patterned after indian prisons that he’d worked at while in the army. Tonto knew many of the people who survived these schools and wanted to do an episode about them.

Tonto's TV Script Revision, photograph by Larry McNeil, 2006.

Tonto displayed a remarkable professional restraint while processing the despicable Richard Pratt into the justice system for his crimes against humanity. Pratt's philosophy was "Kill the Indian in him, and save the man." Unfortunately, Pratt did not live by this philosophy, because many of the innocent Indian children were indeed killed at his school, and for generations, many other Indian Schools were patterned after his. Pratt was in denial and hardly blinked. Tonto knew this dark scene would never make it to the audience of kids, but insisted on shooting it anyway. One of his deputies looked on in disbelief that the scene was allowed to be shot, and it was quickly finished in one take.

The Indian boarding schools are a tragic part of American and Canadian history. Australia did a similar thing with their aboriginal people too. There is a more comprehensive story about this at various websites, including the one here at NPR, titled, “American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many.”

Unfortunately, this episode of the Lone Ranger never aired and was censored out of the series, but Tonto got it filmed. The Lone Ranger series continued for another year until America became bored with the cartoonish theatrics of the lead actor. Tonto’s film was 60 years too early and would’ve scored well at the Sundance Film Festival in the darkly humorous drama category, because it was a gritty, yet honest look at ourselves.

I seem to have forgotten my old Leica on the table and have captured myself in the mirror from this still from the film.

“Tonto’s TV Script Revision” has been published in various books and exhibited at a number of museums and galleries. Hopefully, Johnny Depp will bring a measure of significance to his portrayal of Tonto in his own film due to be released next year, and Tonto won’t be portrayed like the dopey yet lovable character from Depp’s wildly successful pirate films. In the bigger picture of the universe, this is kind of trivial, but on the other hand, myths do count.

Is it just me, or does Depp look kind of bonkers next to the regal and heroic Lone Ranger? Spirit warrior? Doesn't Depp's Tonto look a bit demented and wimpy next to the rugged and debonair Lone Ranger? What's that all about? Was it just a bad camera angle or something? Anyway, I'll hold back on any prejudgements about Depp's Tonto until I see the film. Until then, here's to you Depp, I hope you do Tonto justice on this Disney ride.

Story and Photos Copyright Larry McNeil, all rights reserved 2012.

(This blog entry was written a few days prior to the release of the newer Canon 5D MKIII in February of 2012. In my opinion, Canon missed the target of nearly everything I’d hoped would’ve appeared in the new MKIII. Dang, don’t you hate it when that happens?)

My spy in Japan tells me that the new Canon 5D MKIII is due to be released any day now, although they’re not sure what it’s going to be named. I hope they stay with the 5D name, because it’s already seared into our psyche as near legendary status (like the ultra-cool, classic Leica M6);  and besides, “5E” sounds kind of lame, like the room number they send the boneheads to when they mess up. In Tlingit, Eeeee means something bad, so that will not do at all, no sir.

It was important that our guy blended easily into the crowds in Japan. We think it worked, because a few people approached him, asking something in Japanese. He replied with a smile that he was Ainu and mysteriously vanished back into the masses. The last time anyone saw him he was quickly firing off a few frames on the night train out of Tokyo.

This essay is kind of a departure for me, because just about all of my published material in books has been about art, not camera gear. For artists, digital techno gear has become something that we have to stay on top of in order to push our art along. It doesn’t necessarily mean that gear drives the look of our art, I think it means that we need to constantly question how to make it all easier to get the looks that we imagine.

Run-of-the-mill, dull digital camera review sites & dealers

I’ve been noticing that many of the typical digital camera review sites write nearly identical reviews of each other with little new information. Too many of them lean towards the banal techno-babble style and they often merely parrot the blurbs from the camera manufacturers. So much for original thinking. With the internet we’re pretty much overrun with dummies who simply cut and paste from other sites. Like we won’t notice. On the other hand, there are some very good ones out there too and I’ve come to look forward to their reviews before going to play with a new camera at the camera store. I’m impressed with B&H when I go to NY and had my own favorite people at Gassers in San Francisco. The first place I met my wife was at a camera store in San Francisco, so as you can see, I’m serious about this stuff, no messin’ around.

The Real Deal; the best photographic gear reviewers in history (stand up & take your hat off)

The premium labs for performing accurate scientific measurements of photographic equipment simply do not exist outside of camera manufacturers anymore. Dang. It means that the independent scientific quantification of photographic equipment is really quite minimal compared to past decades when it was very rigorous and lively. It means we’re regressing on this front, and if we don’t watch out, we may be grunting our reviews to each other.

The magazine "Modern Photography" had the best lab in the world for objective, precise measurements for an entire array of benchmark tests, along with a large staff of highly skilled technicians. They essentially epitomized the scientific independent review of cameras and lenses, so that manufacturer's claims could be either confirmed or repudiated with hard scientific facts, and subjectivity was removed from the equation. My version of the lab test is to drop a camera on the sidewalk and if it doesn't crack or break, it earns the "Dang Good" rating.

My own 5D MKII experiences

I got my own 5D MKII three years ago, in February of 2009, and it was love at first sight. I was wrangled into shooting an annual report for Sealaska Corporation in Alaska and needed to bring a good all-around camera with me. The Canon 5D MKII was perfect because it  worked just as well in a studio setting as in a driving winter blizzard; harsh elements. I ran it through it’s paces, gave it the works from a hard driving pro who wrings every little bit out of his gear. After that I used the camera on a one-year Arts and Humanities Fellowship on a project having to do with the Global Climate Crisis, a couple trips to Aotearora (New Zealand) to work with cool Maori artists, and various art projects. It hasn’t failed me yet.

I’m fairly familiar with this 5D MKII and have grown to like it’s tough build, fairly compact size, ease of use and very intuitive controls, not to mention its sumptuous 21 Megapixel photographs.I like how Canon has evolved their camera designs from one camera generation to the next, because if you know one well, chances are good you’ll know the others too. Keep that going Canon, it’s brilliant. However, there are a few improvements that could be made, and hopefully they’ll show up on the new 5D MKIII, so here goes with my suggestions.

Drum roll please:

#1 Increased megapixel size and more efficient electronics, the medium format slayer on the loose

Of course, a digital camera is really a computer with a lens that captures images, and like us, it’s only as good as the brains that run it. I vote for the one with the better brains.  In that sense, Canon did a superb job with it’s Digic 4 processor. They say that every 18 months computers double their processing power and speed, so we’re likely in for quite a jump in hardcore image crunching power with the new MKIII. I would bet that we have an increase in ISO speed with less noise, but who knows? If this is the case, it would also foster the logic of increased megapixel size. I’m guessing 38 Megapixels, only because of the math with improved processor performance.

Ok give it up; you know that our number one request is more pixels. Hand 'em over.

If we do in fact end up with a 5D that has 38 Megapixels at an affordable price, that would mean that this MKIII went beyond being a straightforward DSLR and could theoretically represent a medium format slayer; that digital medium format cameras are on notice that their days are numbered. Especially if all those pixels can be fit onto a full sized sensor that didn’t have to make the leap to a larger medium format sized sensor. If this is the case, I can see why it took longer than usual for this MKIII to be released.

I would also make the argument that Canon should not charge a medium format price for a camera with this amount of megapixels. One of the reasons that the Canon 5D MKII was such a bestseller was because Canon did not get overly greedy with the price and charged a fair price for the camera. If Canon wants sales to skyrocket for a camera with this kind of configuration, it has to be priced affordably or else they’ll just sit on shelves in the store.

I’d like to see the electronics made more efficiently so that they use less power. I realize that the big LCD screen sucks up a lot of battery power, maybe that could be tweaked to be more efficient. Maybe even a firmware option so that only 40% of the screen is used in a pinch when you’re running low on power. The batteries are inordinately expensive. On the other hand, I am  happy with the image processor. It operates quickly and I’ve never had to wait for the frame capture to catch up with my shooting, even when shooting in fast bursts (such as my aerial photos of a coal mine from a small plane when I had to shoot like a machine gunner).

#2 Keep the full frame sensor size

I do like the size of the 5D body, but it could be made even smaller. I know some people with big hands like big cameras, but let them be ditch diggers or something more suited to their physique. Let us normal sized people have smaller cameras. This means not making the sensor larger, that would be a step backwards.

The full frame sensor is a perfect size for the array of lenses already out there, so I’d advocate for the sensor to stay the same size for optimal image quality while making the body smaller. In the future, smaller sensors are going to be the norm, but the technology is not there yet. I can easily imagine image sensors eventually being reduced to only the smallest fraction of the current full sized sensor, which will be a most excellent prospect because it will also mean having pro cameras and lenses that are only a fraction of the current size. Until that day, keep the full sized sensor and try and cram more pixels onto it without compromising image quality. Big cameras are a 20th century contrivance and should join the ranks of 8-track tape players, so pretty please with sugar on top, don’t make the 5D larger. Good riddance big cameras, bring on the tiny cameras with quality that current high-end pro cameras can only dream about.

#3 Wifi & GPS, because after all, we’re on the run, always

My next wish for the new 5D MKIII is Wifi. Look, it would just fit on the far left! The portrait is of the honorable Dr. Walter Soboleff, for the annual report shot for Sealaska, of course made with the Canon 5D MKII.

Wifi capability for a pro digital camera is long overdue. Look at what makes the iPhone so popular, it’s ability to easily send photos. Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to log onto a wifi connection and have the ability to send high-end photographs? This would help make any pro DSLR an instant bestseller. Just make sure that the controls are fast and intuitive so that we don’t have to mess around too much, we’re likely to be in a hurry. Wifi should’ve been made available to pros before amateurs, but better late than never. As long as you’re at it, put in a GPS, because we like to occasionally geotag photos along the way, it would come in handy. It’s critical to have the ability to easily switch it off though, because after all, some of our places are meant to be secret; mystery is good.

#4 Make it more rugged man, don’t hold back

While shooting a coal-fired power plant for one of my projects, it was driving rain when I arrived, and it only got worse as the afternoon progressed. It sounded like little pebbles hitting the windshield. I was losing light fast and had to do something, so I jumped out and fired off a bunch of shots from a few different angles, got back in the car to dry off the camera and repeated this until I got the shots I needed. This 5D earned my respect that day, and the photographs looked exceptional; way better than I could have expected.

Don’t get me wrong, the 5D MKII is tough, but it lacks the formidable feel of the previous generation of film cameras. Even after all these years of shooting with DSLR’s in snow storms and pouring rain, I still get the feeling that they’ll fail me if I shoot in the snow or rain for too long. Maybe it means using an even more robust covering with more rugged seals. I noticed that the camera body covering gets a little slippery when it gets moist. I want a camera that’ll be able to take a direct phaser blast and keep on shooting without skipping a beat, no wimpy cameras allowed.

Leica has a practice of sometimes letting people design a special edition of a camera. If Canon would let me design a limited edition 5D MKIII, it would be made out of brass, have special heavy-duty seals and the black paint would be weathered around the edges so that the brass would show through. How cool would that be?

#5 Figure out how to get rid of the image sensor filter

Let’s be honest here, it’s kind of ridiculous to make an image sensor with a filter in front of it that softens the image sharpness. This is where film is still better than digital photography. You can’t beat the sharpness from a film camera with a set of high quality lenses, and in the second decade of the 21st century, that’s just plain silly. Are sharp photos too much to ask for? This may be even more challenging to get rid of because of the addition of the integrated cleaning system, which puts even more material in front of the sensor, but does make it cleaner. It’s like making lenses out of the best quality glass and putting a cheap filter on it, resulting in unsharp photos. In this instance, film beats digital cameras, it’s no contest.

#6 Do a better job of streamlining the stinkin’ postprocessing tasks

After days deep in the shadowy labyrinths of the postprocessing mines you feel gritty & thrashed, and wonder why you're spending your life in front of a computer instead of behind a camera. Fresh air and bright light seem alien after days of digital postprocessing grunt work.

Every single photographer will agree that postprocessing simply takes way too long. It eats into slim profit margins and turns photographers into computer slaves. Instead of spending time on the creative end of things behind the camera, we’re spending more and more time in front of a computer doing postprocessing tasks. It means that our digital workflow is taking way too long. For an example, why not have the photographs shot at a native resolution of 150 or 300 pixels per inch, since these are already standard sizes for digital editing? Programs like Lightroom are automating many of the postprocessing tasks, but the interface settings between the camera and postprocessing software could be improved and speeded up substantially.

Another reality is that editing film is way faster than editing digital photos. It used to be that a professional photographer would shoot with transparency film, do a set of edits on a light table and simply put the film away in some orderly fashion. A big job could be edited and archived in less than a couple hours. With digital photography it can take days instead of hours to do the same thing. In this sense, digital photography is still way behind film photography and needs to be dramatically speeded up.

Maybe it simply means figuring out a way to speed up the electronic pipeline between the camera and the computer so that archiving and database protocols are way more automated than now. I get the feeling that this is caveman work, striking two stones together to build a fire and we’re missing something very basic here. Maybe it just means that this particular part of the evolution of digital photography is going too slow and something needs to be jump started to get it up to the proper speed. A better compression scheme for files? Pixels that are dual function? You read it here first. This is a copyrighted idea so don’t steal it. Fly me over to Japan to talk to your research and development people; I’ve got some interesting ideas on how to do this, we can solve this bottleneck.

#7 Sturdy interchangeable LCD viewfinder prism & magnifier attachment

One of the really amazing things that medium format camera manufacturers did was to make an entire array of viewfinders that used high quality optics for image magnification and to help shade bright light. Many also had high quality prisms so that you could hold the camera comfortably and naturally while composing your photos.This should be a built-in option for high-end viewfinders to attach to the 5D MKIII LCD screen. For an example, look at the variety of viewfinders that Hasselblad made for their viewing screens. They were both lightweight, had high quality viewing, and built extra rugged so they could take being banged around in everyday use. It’s completely absurd to not have the option of a built-in viewfinder for the LCD screen on a professional camera. I hope that the 5D MKIII eliminates this glaring shortcoming, especially with the advent of shooting digital video, but even with everyday still photography.

Canon can learn from Hasselblad with premium viewfinders. The interface needs to be made out of sturdy metal that has a simple attachment with few moving parts and made as compact as possible. Hasselblad viewfinders were elegant and built like armored tanks and you were able to choose from various prisms that allowed for viewing from different angles (with an LCD, 90º for looking straight down, 45º for near eye level, and straight out for looking straight into the LCD viewfinder with just magnification and no prism).

#8 Metering, camera controls, digital noise, white balance, etc.

I’m generally impressed with the camera controls and would advocate for increased simplicity whenever possible. As the electronics, image processor and firmware become ever-more sophisticated, their design should aim towards making the camera operations easier and more automated. It’s good to go into manual override along the way too, and there is much to be said for a clean, uncluttered design. If the controls become more sophisticated, something is wrong, because the controls should become simpler as the circuitry becomes more sophisticated. Therefore, the MKIII should be even easier to operate than the MKII.

I do like the philosophy of using dials and buttons for many of the more commonly used controls, it is way faster than navigating through all the layers of menu items. The menu items are nicely and logically planned out too though; I’d try and hold onto this simplicity in future versions.

There is always a bit of digital noise to deal with and this has to do with improved sensor technology. I get the sense that this is very evolutionary and will improve by degrees, unless there is a leap in technology, which could very well may happen at some point. I am certain that in 20 years we’ll be laughing at how crude today’s high-end DSLR cameras were designed. Same with things like white balance and more precise metering. It seems to me that it’s time for a leap in image quality for RAW files with things like an expanded exposure latitude with a broader dynamic range. I don’t want the sky, only better digital photographs.

Same with white balance; it seems that this is also one of the holy grails of digital photography in that it’s a constant quest for making it better. The bottom line lies with how well the camera sensor and image processor interprets specific scenes. The easiest scenes to replicate are simply ones with bright daylight. Good old 5000º Kelvin is easy as pie to interpret, even for cheap point and shoot amateur cameras. I would give the 5D MKII high grades on making accurate photographs in tricky lighting. One of the hallmarks of a good pro is how they make great photos in low light or mixed lighting. I would encourage the Canon research and development people to keep hammering away at how the 5D interprets white balance and to make it even more sensitive to the light and to keep striving for precision, especially in challenging situations.

#9 Don’t sweat the small stuff, but…

I do miss having a built-in flash, even if it’s a piddly wink. It’s useful in a pinch when you just need a burst of light quickly. Sometimes I try raising my hands towards the heavens and bellowing “LET THERE BE LIGHT,” but it hasn’t worked that well yet. I’ll get back to you on that one.

I was horrified at the tinny quality of the built-in microphone. It sounded like a 1960’s recording device, not a 21st century microphone on a top of the line digital camera. For the first time ever, I found myself purchasing an external sound recorder for one of my pro cameras. Even a video neophyte like me didn’t like the built-in mic, so video pros must’ve been even more disappointed.

I like it that there are interchangeable viewing screens and would advocate for a center split screen viewfinder so that photographers can focus more accurately when using manual focus.

Yes, we photographers can still sometimes focus better than the autofocus function, especially in tricky situations where you’re using a specialized lens or are shooting a scene with a complex composition where the auto settings may be utterly confused and it’s preventing a photograph from being made quickly. We pros need speed in all situations and it simply does not do to wait for the camera to try and decide where to focus, which is why a better interchangeable viewing screen is critical for getting sharp photos fast.

High Definition Video is all the rage

I’ll confess that video is my weakness and I hardly use it, although I am learning. Shooting high definition video is obviously both an art and a skill with a broad array of collaborators that are necessary if you are to do a bona fide video production. I can see that shooting video is radically different than still photography, and it takes way more production skills in order to do it well, such as scriptwriting, directing, sound, lighting, editing and so on. One of the key elements that is driving the push towards video is the reality that so much of the online content is leaning towards video, and even amateur point and shoot cameras can shoot decent video for online purposes. It makes me curious as to whether us photography professors need to rethink our photography curriculums so that they are more inclusive of current trends like digital video. In the past, video production would be a separate program; maybe now they need to be more closely linked.

I’m not even going to pretend to be an HD digital video pro, but instead, will send you to the Canon website where they have a very informative place for you to learn about what the Canon 5D is capable of producing in the hands of video professionals; check this out:

Canon DLC: Gallery: Cinema EOS: Insights from the Crew.

Canon has an interesting and useful "Digital Learning Center" segment to their website. I liked this one in particular, because they had a cinematographer and director talking about how they used a 5D for a video production. Pretend the video isn't a wannabe copy of "Blade Runner," but rather more an exercise in what the camera is capable of producing on HD video. Then click on the "Cinema EOS Media Gallery" link for more samples of video shot on the 5D. The clear message here is that you can get big-budget looks at a fraction of existing production costs. I suspect that the 5D may lead to other large sensor HD video cameras designed specifically for video, but we'll see.

State of the art

Well, there you have it; my nine (or was that 11?) suggestions for taking the MKIII way better than the MKII. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I suspect that the camera is due to be released fairly soon, and it’ll be fun to see which features Canon has implemented into their new 5D. And I hope that Canon takes me up on my request to talk with their research people as to how to add dramatic speed to their pixels. Until then, happy shooting.

"Winter in Juneau" was really shot in a blizzard in Juneau, deep in the heart of winter. I was thinking about Raven as one of our mythical creatures, and how the image is kind of a bridge between two bodies of work.

Story and Photographs Copyright Larry McNeil, 2012, All Rights Reserved.

On this auspicious first day of 2012, I wish you an extraordinary new year and the hope that things improve for the people, and for our home planet. It seems that the global state of gloom and doom has gotten everyone’s attention by now.

I can’t help but be reminded that it is the struggle that defines humanity, and we are at our best when things get rugged. My advice is to remain flexible with whatever you encounter this year, especially if it’s challenging. Sharpen your wits to a razor’s edge and don’t forget the coffee.

Ice lens.

As for myself, I’m going to add a new camera to my bag of tricks, just in case. It has a built-in monopod that not only shoots cool photos, but can double as a zombie flail if need be. I call this my 2012 Digital Camera, because it takes five digits to grasp it properly.

My new custom-made camera setup for 2012.

Nothing freezes the zombie action like this 2012 Digital Camera. You realize I’m just kidding, right? It’s really not a flail at all; it’s just a camera for the upcoming year.

Have a great new year and remember, the magic words for 2012 are flexibility, preparedness and quick wits. Think like a raven.

Story & Photos Copyright Larry McNeil, 2012, All Rights Reserved

First Light, Winter Solstice (lithograph)

Back in the summer of 2007 I made a collaborative print with Brooke Steiger titled “First Light, Winter Solstice.” Brooke did a beautiful job and I really love this print, especially now at First Light, on Winter Solstice.

Raven steals everything that isn’t nailed down. Heck, even some stuff that is nailed down, so it was perfectly natural that I in turn “borrowed” Edward Curtis’ flagship photograph that he dubiously titled “The Vanishing Race.” Sorry Curtis, it’s mine now. Only it is changed to reflect a scene more grounded in reality. Rez cars.

Curtis made a high art out of constructing inane stereotypical scenes about Indians, such as this one with them riding into the sunset as a poetic farewell. The photographic scenes were a mix between what appeared to be museum dioramas and staged photo sets, complete with actors, costumes, makeup, and of course fine photography and lighting. In the midst of his photographic project on Indians, Curtis did in fact work for Cecil B. Demille as a Hollywood cameraman.

At any rate, Curtis passed his Vanishing Race photographs off as truth and did it with a flourish, because after all, he was a highly trained photographer; certainly good enough to get J.P. Morgan to provide seed money, to have President Theodore Roosevelt to write the forward to his books and have Cecil B. Demille hire him as a part of his own Hollywood myth making team. See the pattern here with myth making? I would put forth the assertion that Curtis’ work is ultimately about White Man, not indigenous people. Curtis’ photographs are telling a story strictly from the standpoint of White Man, plain and simple. It’s a romanticized Western story that has little to do with reality.

The young Edward Curtis trying to look mysterious. He was using his mom's hat in the lighting test and forgot to put his own back on.

Curtis was indeed a very talented photographer who made beautiful work about real people too though; the photographs were just not very honest much of the time, that’s all. I would have liked his work a lot better if he photographed the indigenous people as he actually found them, like in front of their cars, talking on the telephone or studying with electric light bulbs. Or better yet, with them riding by an old Rez car that was fading back into the landscape.

This takes us to First Light Winter Solstice, where I wanted to make the characters more grounded in reality, like them going to a Winter Solstice ceremony at first light, passing an old beat up pickup truck along the way. It’s about continuing ancient ceremonies, not fading into the sunset. Raven transformed the scene with a bit of magic, digital tools and good old artistry with a master Tamarind lithography printer. We had to solve a lot of very challenging creative and technical tasks too, and even had to recruit master printer Bill Lagattuta to help solve some of the more extraordinary technical roadblocks we encountered.

This Rez car was remarkably difficult to make and was where we had to pull in another master printer to get the look I was looking for.

It is only here at the first light of the new winter solstice that I again fully appreciate the teamwork that allowed us to make the lithograph I had envisioned at the beginning of our collaboration at the Tamarind Art Institute. It also took an entire team of organizations to make this project a reality, starting with the State Department, where the Arts in Embassies program resides. It also took the National Museum of the American Indian, the Tamarind Art Institute and many other key people behind the scenes to make it a reality. I send my heartfelt thank you to them all, including the other artists who participated at the time: Jaune Quick-to See Smith, Norman Aikers, Marie Watt, and Mario Martinez.

I love the idea of making art that was designed to act so specifically as an ambassador for our people. I was thinking of who we really are as Americans, both Indigenous and the proverbial ‘melting pot’ that forms our collective identity. I was thinking of early Cowboy and Indian films that formed the world’s perception of who we are, especially as a mythical place.

Raven the transformer never stops shifting things around, we are in a constant state of change.

I wanted a heroic Raven pictograph for the background because he is from our own creation story and frequently amuses himself with the often-subliminal nature of a quasi-educator, a poetic rascal. By using a sepia toned photograph I played with the perception that Indians were and are only in the past, and brought them into the present and did it with a bit of a sly joke that we can chuckle about. If we can take outdated stereotypical ideas and laugh about them, we acknowledge that they were indeed a bit absurd and we can move on in a good way. Especially at the first light of the winter solstice, which is also about transformation and continual shifts everywhere.

Art in Embassies website at the State Department. McNeil's editions may be tracked as to which Embassy is exhibiting a lithograph.

Story Copyright Larry McNeil, All Rights Reserved, 2011

X’áant xwaanúk Tléil yee ushk’é, I’m angry you are bad is from my body of work about the global climate crisis.

Artists try and make sense of the world. It doesn’t always work because sometimes the world simply doesn’t make sense. So we end up capturing the lunacy.

I assembled this collage around two core images. Raven was first. I was looking for an authoritative, stately posture that would be an iconic black silhouette with a rich, pure charcoal feel. This raven went through the heat and was slightly carbonized, so he was perfect for a cheerful black day at the power plant. Our creation story involves raven and carbon emissions.

I'm Angry you are bad.

I’m Tlingit and we take shit from nobody. If it weren’t for us, Siberia would extend into North America. Either that or Canada would extend west into what is now Alaska. We drove both groups of colonists out of our homeland at the loss of many lives and I mention this only because it is this warrior philosophy that drives nearly everything I do, especially as an artist. The triangles on the right are stylized Killer Whale teeth and there is a faded Chilkat robe pattern in the decayed wall.

Stylized killer whale teeth. I am from the Tlingit Killer Whale Fin House, and the teeth have their origins in some of our ancient spruce root basket designs.

Chilkat robe pattern chipped into an eroded wall with a white raven peering into the empty head of a human.

I felt filthy from photographing coal-fired power plants around the country and actually got a nasty nasal infection from being around them. I feel bad for the people who have to live on the same planet as these thousands of massive coal-fired power plants scattered all over Earth. I also feel bad for the home planet and how badly humans have brutalized her. It makes me rethink the definition of humans and whether it is natural for us to ruin our environment because we do it so well. In that sense, it also has me rethinking the definition of the term “nature,” especially when describing humans and what we make, how we treat our environment and each other. It may mean that a Styrofoam cup is as natural as a buffalo, which kind of scares me.

Earthscape #31 is from the Rocketship Chronicles series. When the Apollo astronauts viewed Earth from the moon, they had a profound revelation. Earth was magical. It also had no borders. They knew from a glance that humanity, all the life there, and the planet were one. This is precisely what every Native tribe has been saying since long before they first met White Man. We are all one; you cannot separate just one element and treat it differently. If you pollute the land and the air, you pollute yourself and all other life, we are all connected. It almost seems gratuitous to say this until you look around and realize that most people don’t get it, especially political leaders and industrialists who only care about their most recent earnings statements.

My Earhscapes are about strengthening the notion that our home planet is indeed all we’ve got to live on and we’ve got to start treating it like it’s a home planet and not a colossal waste heap. It’s a little playful in that there is a quasi- yearning for finding another planet where we can find refuge. Then we come to our senses and think, “Wait a minute. This is OUR home planet. It’s the polluters whose damn asses should be on rocket ships out of here, not ours…

Earthscape #31. I made this photo last year from my rocketship, over the coast of southern California after assisting MFA Photography students at Brooks Institute.

Hasselblad Moon film back from a NASA camera. For real. This is so perfect for my Rocketship Chronicles photos.

I have a portfolio of photos regarding my Rocketship Chronicles on facebook. What’s really cool about it is the feedback I get from friends.

My Rocketship Chronicles portfolio on facebook.

Kimowan’s Journey

One of the most profoundly beautiful, sad and mysterious experiences I’ve had this year was when our sister Hulleah and I went to say farewell to our brother in art Kimowan Metchewais up in Alberta late this summer. I’m reminded that we meet many gentle spirits on this journey of life and the journey is so short, painfully beautiful, and so damn hard sometimes. We ease the journey with each other, at least this much is clear.

After Kimowan started his journey into the spirit world that morning, a series of peculiar events started to unfold. Hulleah and I tried to be unobtrusive as Kimowan’s family went about taking care of Kimowan’s passing in the hospital that morning. Antje was beside herself with grief, as was everyone else. Kimowan’s mom was so gracious and offered to ride with Hulleah and I up to Cold Lake later that morning.

In a moment of silence, Kimowan’s hospital room was vacant, even as people gathered in the guest suite next door sipping coffee and talking quietly, giving each other hugs and tender assurances. There was a feeling of peace and calm amongst the sorrow. Someone laughed gently and gave us the Cree translation for “strong coffee.” I wish I could remember those Cree words. I stood at the window looking out at the view as his family went about taking care of business. I noticed a few young ravens playing right outside his window. One in particular was hopping on the roof, doing what was obviously a shadow dance. He was very taken with his shadow and was clearly enjoying it’s presence. It’s shadow looked like a rocketship. Without even thinking about it I pulled out my camera phone and shot off a bunch of photos, smiling at raven’s oblivious playfulness. It made me wonder if perhaps Kimowan was having a bit of fun on his way, and nature couldn’t help but play along. Kimowan would’ve smiled at the camera phone too, I’m sure. We don’t need no stinkin’ fancy pants cameras, we wing it quite well, thank you.

"Raven Rocket from Kimowan's Window." It's stylized a bit, but is essentially what the scene looked like outside Kimowan's window. Raven loves rocketships even more than me I think.

I have a portfolio of photos that I made on that journey, including many other instances of nature living it up that day. Way more than usual. Here’s to you Kimowan, we miss you.

These are the three prints that I have in our 2011 Biennial Art Department Faculty Exhibition today at the Visual Arts Center. Come and check it out, I’m in some most excellent company.

Story Copyright Larry McNeil 2011, All Rights Reserved