Yesterday morning (July 16th, the day after the Indian Market Photography Category entries were due) I was helping to fulfill a family obligation in addition to my regular tasks. The garage. My wife has been doing most of it and I’ve been helping provide the muscle and getting the cars loaded up to cart as much stuff away as we can. I found a pair of “Bunny Boots” from when I lived in Alaska shooting waaaayyyy up north. Where usual cameras froze solid. The Bunny Boots are a real Alaskan phenomenon, designed in the 1950’s so that people can work in extreme cold and still have warm feet. They look like comical big white Mickey Mouse shoes, but really do work.

Indian Market Call for Entries in Photography, 1994. Larry's garage: Bunny boots, art crates (hey, are those rocketship icons on the crate?) and synchronous brochures.

At any rate, I was going to send these Bunny Boots to my nephew Da-ka about ten years ago, but they got lost in the garage. He lives in Fairbanks, where they have serious winters and thought  that maybe he’d know someone who could use them, even though they’re pretty beat up. If you showed up with new ones in Alaska, you’d likely get immediately mugged anyway. Let’s just say that these ones are properly seasoned. Neatly tucked inside them was a small stack of “Call For Entry” brochures for this Photography Category at Indian Market from 1994! Wow.

What makes this really cool is that the Indian Market category for photography is in the process of being revived, and the deadline for entries was none other than yesterday. Imagine that. I was looking for this brochure for years to no avail, and when I really, really needed it, voilà! There it was. I’m sure that stuff like this is no accident, especially since it’s 17 years old and has been lost all this time, and I needed it today.

The synchronicity was finding this call for entries as I was jurying photographs and clarifying for myself what this endeavor was all about. Photography, indigenousness and the cool photographs that emerge as they intersect. It’s days like this where I feel that the creator is tossing stuff my way saying “Way to go, man. Keep it up.”

The exhibition is going to be here at the New Mexico Museum of Art, opening on August 12, 2011 during the 90th Indian Market in Santa Fe. Ninetieth? Cool, good excuse to jam on over there to check out the photographs and all the other great art!

Back in 1994 this was called “Through the Native Lens.” For the second year, I spearheaded the effort as a collaboration between SWAIA and the Institute of American Indian Arts. The brochure states “Last year’s beginning for this now yearly Museum exhibition and Indian Market event revealed a strong contingent of Indian people who are remarkable photographers. Works were entered from as far away as California, New York and Minnesota. We are confident this exhibition will continue to get bigger with each passing year.”

Come to Indian Market and see the new work. I’m sure you’ll be happy to see all the new work from whom are indeed remarkable photographers.
Story © Copyright Larry McNeil, 2011, All rights reserved.

There is a very cool confluence of enthusiastic energy aimed at Indigenous Photographers and it’s happening in Santa Fe during Indian Market. Ok, every one of my Native Photographer friends has to participate, that’s the rule. We’re all going the distance here for you, so take full advantage!

SWAIA is the organization that has sponsored Indian Market for decades. It's not only the art center of the cosmos for Native American Art, but the coolest place to run into new and old friends. I'm always very pleasantly surprised at the new innovative art I see there, and the food is to die for, as they say. Not to mention really good coffee.

So yes, SWAIA has a very cool photography category now. Get your submissions in!

Guess who else is participating?

As if that’s not good enough, the New Mexico Museum of Art is hosting the exhibition component! How cool is that? Katherine Ware, their Curator of Photography has helped reorganize the photography category for SWAIA and Indian Market. Talk about heavy hitters stepping in to help get the photography category moving with a bit more purpose. Now you’ve GOT to get some work submitted. The New Mexico Museum of Art has a long and honorable history of curating some of the best photographic exhibitions in the country.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Andrew Smith is putting his love of photography behind this effort too. He’s worked tirelessly behind the scenes for years to get the photography category more energized.

What? You’re still not convinced? Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, Katherine Ware and myself are jurying this Photography Indian Market category and the winners are going to have their work exhibited at the ever venerable New Mexico Museum of Art! With so much positive and innovative energy going into this, how can you go wrong? Get your work in!

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Call for Entries

Hosted by the New Mexico Museum of Art in partnership with the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA), the competition and exhibition are designed to encourage Native American artists working with photography to share their recent work with a broad audience of viewers. Artworks will be judged on the basis of vision, technical execution, and cohesiveness as a body of images. All subject matter is welcome. The competition winners will be invited to show their work in an exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Art, opening August 12, 2011, during SWAIA’s 90^th annual Santa Fe Indian Market, as well as in an online version of the show.

Jurors:

Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Diné/Seminole/Muscogee) is an artist serving as Director of the C.N. Gorman Museum at University of California Davis and Associate Professor in the Department of Native American Studies at University of California Davis. Her photographic works have been extensively published and exhibited nationally and internationally.

Katherine Ware is curator of photography at the New Mexico Museum of Art. She is a frequent juror and reviewer of contemporary photography and has published numerous books and essays on both historic and contemporary photography.

Larry McNeil (Tlingit and Nisgáa) is a scholar and artist serving as professor in the Art Department at Boise State University. He taught previously at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He is a contributing author to numerous publications and has won many fellowships and awards for his photographs.

Artist Eligibility: The competition is open to all Native artists who are enrolled members of federally recognized US and Canadian tribes, nations, first nations and pueblos who work with digital or traditional still photography or two-dimensional mixed-media work that is photo-based.

How to Enter: All submissions must be of work made within the past three years. Submissions can be made electronically or through the mail.  Please send electronic submissions to photoexhibit@swaia.org.  For questions about electronic submission, please contact Lisa Morris (lmorris@swaia.org). Mail disks to SWAIA Photo Exhibition, P.O. Box 969, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504. The submitted images must be jpegs, no larger than 1960 pixels, with a maximum file size of 1.8 MBs. You may submit up to 12 images. Each submission should include a statement about the work of no more than 200 words.

Deadline: All submissions must be received by July 5, 2011.

Notification: Winners will be notified by July 13, 2011. All other entrants will be notified thereafter.

Winners wishing to participate in the exhibition must send ready-to-hang work to arrive at the museum no later than July 29.

• Winners will be provided funds for framing and shipping.  The art must be sent to the museum framed or ready for installation.
• Final dimensions are not to exceed 5’ x 5’. Neutral mat colors and simple frames are preferred, unless the style of presentation is integral to the work of art.
• Glazing must be acrylic – no glass.

If the presentation of the art does not meet the museum’s standards, the museum reserves the right to request modification. Artists will receive museum loan agreements for accepted works of art, which must be completed and returned by mail. For general questions about the competition, please contact Kate Ware (kate.ware@state.nm.us)

Terms and Conditions: The New Mexico Museum of Art, in consultation with the jurors, reserves the right to select or decline any artwork submitted. By submitting work for consideration, the artist agrees to allow accepted art to be reproduced for publicity and/or educational purposes.

Funding is generously provided by Andrew Smith Gallery and Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.

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As you can see, the deadline is approaching quickly! July 5th, so get it together. Everyone involved in this endeavor is working hard to make it successful, but we need you to make it happen. So please, get your work in. This is going to be excellent and you need to be a part of it.