page_title: Photography by indigenous peoples of the Americas
section_title: 1950s–1999
hierarchical_section_title: Photography by indigenous peoples of the Americas / 1950s–1999
caption_attribution_description: English: In en:Peter Pitseolak's home, April 1968.
context_page_description: Photography by indigenous peoples of the Americas is an art form that began in the late 19th century and has expanded in the 21st century, including digital photography, underwater photography, and a wide range of alternative processes. Indigenous peoples of the Americas have used photography as a means of expressing their lives and communities from their own perspectives. Native photography stands in contrast to the ubiquitous photography of indigenous peoples by non-natives, which has often been criticized as being staged, exoticized, and romanticized.
context_section_description: For a 1980s exhibit of Hopi photographers at Northlight Gallery in Tempe, Arizona, Victor Masayesva, Jr. (Hopi) explained how Hopis protect their privacy from the flood of photographs of them and their community by non-Hopi people. Hopi photographers know that certain subjects, especially ceremonial dances are not meant to be photographed. "The camera which is available to us is a weapon that will violate the silences and secrets so essential to our group survival," he wrote. Many Hopi photographers do not sell their work to outsides.
  The establishment of tribal newspapers, such as the Qua Toqti and Hopi Tribal News both in the 1970s, created a demand for Native photojournalists. Owen Seumptewa (Hopi) became photographic consultant to his tribe in 1976.
  While many native photographers were interested in documenting tribal life, Luis González Palma (Mestizo, b. 1957) borrows from a Victorian aesthetic to create haunting, mysterious portraits of Mayan and mestizo people, especially women, from his native Guatemala. He shoots in black and white but then hand-tints the photographs in sepia tones.
  The first Canadian national conference of indigenous photographers took place in March 1985 in Hamilton, Ontario, and from that the Native Indian/Inuit Photographers' Association (NIIPA) was formed. During the 1980s, NIIPA had fifty members from North America.
caption: Photograph of his home by Peter Pitseolak (Inuk), 1968
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