The Concise Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital Revolution Book

Here's the review I wrote for a local newspaper:

Pictures have always supplemented Ojibwe oral history. From the sacred birchbark scrolls that chronicle Midewiwin practices, to the pictographs that mark the sloping granite lakeshores of northern Minnesota and Ontario, pictures have carried symbolic and narrative weight for Ojibwe people since long before the language was first written down.

But a picture is like any tool of remembrance. Its incompleteness ensures that something will be left out. In this way the picture may tell you something of its subject and its creator, or it may obscure a truth about both.

The book We are at Home: Pictures of the Ojibwe People, by historian Bruce White, is a re-examining of the photographic record of the Ojibwe from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s: the first hundred years of photography. The book is set to be published on May 22.

"Photographs are not stories, but they can be the starting points of stories. Nothing is self-evident in a photograph, despite all appearances," says White in his introduction. White has been scrupulous about uncovering the stories buried beneath these photographs, through many discussions with Ojibwe elders and their families, and research going back to the 1970s.

The images in We are at Home come from widely different places and motivations. Included are studio shots of chiefs and prominent Ojibwe leaders; babies in their dikinaaganan; processes such as canoe-making or boiling sap; stereotypical imagery meant to affirm the common conceptions of a wider white audience; photos taken by and for Ojibwe people; domestic scenes and communal scenes; pictures of subjects living lives every shade of grey between traditional and assimilated; shots in town or on the reservation.

"White overturns the simulations of stoical, isolated natives in studio portrait photographs as he presents a diverse natural domain of natives in active, communal situations," writes professor and author Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Ojibwe) in the foreward.

White does this partly by raising our consciousness of the act of photographing with detailed captions that call elements in the photographs to attention. Many photographers wanted to portray the Ojibwe in a certain way, and wherever possible, White points out objects that may have been used as props, or portrayals of individuals that were fictionalized. Several pictures of hunting or action shots were in fact staged scenes with styles of dress that harkened back to an earlier time.

More generally he analyzes the choices made in the images: why do we see the baby on the woman's back but not the woman herself? Why did the photographer choose a modern house as the backdrop, and what was his agenda? Wherever possible, White uses historical data on the photographers and the subjects to form possible answers to these questions.

With some exceptions, the tone of the photographs progresses through the book from the stiff formality of the early studio prints and staged poses, to the more easygoing casual style found in the photos taken by the Ojibwe themselves, taken later when cameras became more available. These photographs begin to resemble current family photos, with a mix of smiles and neutral expressions.

While his historical analysis is thoughtful and thorough, White's humble and respectful approach to the project radiates from the pages. In the introduction he goes into great detail about the many visits he's had with tribal elders and relatives of those in the photographs, saying "Without their help and interest, I would have known very little."

White's stated goal is to strip away the stereotypes and underpinnings of the Ojibwe as they were presented, and to learn something new of the people who came before. He leaves the book open-ended, as the beginning of a dialogue.

Thanks to White, the stories of those in the photographs have been sought out diligently and made personal. Above all, this is a book of Ojibwe people, and the living stories of these people make it well worth the read.