Sky Hopinka and Entangled Indigenous Identities

On the triangular relationship between photography, time and colonialism

Authors

Abstract

Since its official inception in 1839, photography has held a complex relationship with time and colonial power. The introduction of photography in the Americas coincided with the colonisation  of the Great Plains in the interior of the present-day United States. Ambitious projects to document Native peoples undertaken by photographers such as Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) have fed the public imaginary and have led to static, stereotypical ideas of the ‘North American Indian.’ This pinpoints an issue hidden in the heart of American identity: what exactly is Native American identity, who is entitled to it and who decides in these matters.

This article explores the problematic consequences of (tribal) citizenship as devices of colonial power through the photographic series The Land Describes Itself (2019), by American photographer and filmmaker Sky Hopinka. Hopinka, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, reflects on his Indigenous identity in our contemporary world through photography and film. I will explore his practice of rephotographing as a post-photographic and non-representational gesture that opens up new perspectives on the triangular relationship between time, photography and colonialism. Finally, this essay argues that to decolonize or indigenize the American West, we should rethink American identity as intricately layered and entangled in both time and space, and therefore necessitates a methodological approach that supports the dissolution of boundaries.

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Author Biography

Esther Scholtes, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Esther Scholtes (NL, 1992) is an art historian and photography theorist. She completed two Bachelors in Arts Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Groningen and she graduated her Research Master in Art History from Leiden University in 2018 with a thesis on intermedial photographic and cartographic practices. She has worked at the NederlandsFotomuseum in Rotterdam and press photo agency ANP in The Hague and currently holds a position as cataloguer of the photography collection at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. She has published on contemporary and historicalphotography and is a member of the editorial board of the Amsterdam-basedart journal Kunstlicht.

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Published

31.05.2022

How to Cite

Scholtes, E. (2022). Sky Hopinka and Entangled Indigenous Identities: On the triangular relationship between photography, time and colonialism. Archivo Papers, 2(1), 39–55. Retrieved from https://archivopapersjournal.com/ojs/index.php/apj/article/view/36