“For four years I lived with the Nez Perce Tribe. I was shown a new way to walk and breathe. An ancient wisdom lived through spirit, a journey given to me.” – Hunter Barnes
One of the foremost documentary photographers working today, Hunter Barnes (1977) has an extraordinary ability to capture aspects of culture and communities ignored by the mainstream and often misrepresented in the modern American narrative. This October Reel Art Press will be releasing Barnes’ latest clothbound edition The People, dedicated to the people of the Nez Perce tribe.
Hunter is the first photographer to be invited into the tribe’s inner circle since Edward S. Curtis, who photographed them over a hundred years ago in the early 1900s. Barnes’ work is a vital record and unprecedented account of the Nimiipuu people. The People is the result of a four-year journey with the tribe during which time Barnes’ committed himself to becoming their companion as well as chronicler of their daily lives.
“I thank all of The People who have guided me through this journey, and the spirit that lives within this project.”
Barnes was introduced to the Nimiipuu through a friend and after joining the Tamkaliks Powwow in Wallowa, Oregon, was invited to the Lapwai Idaho Native American reservation where he was introduced to the families that lived there. While he was there, he spent extended time with the elders – one of the most traditional and spiritual parts of the tribe – in their sweat lodge, gaining their trust and learning their ways.
Barnes’ process is integral to his work, emphasising the importance of developing friendship and trust before taking photographs. Fundamental to Hunter’s work is the journey, the people, the place. Then committing them to film before they are greatly changed or gone forever. Friend and Creative Director, Nathaniel Kilcer, writes, “Hunter’s photographs speak to the power of authentic encounters among equals, the rewards of a deeply personal journey—of love, really, for those met along the way.” Hunter shoots exclusively on film, the pace of analogue in harmony with his approach.
Shot in black and white, the photographs are beautiful and stark, his subjects unflinching in their gaze. “In these photos I have seen a world that continues to change. A traditional culture that has met a modern age. A century that has passed and a new world that rises.”
See more of Hunter’s work at www.hunterbarnes.com
The People: Photographs by Hunter Barnes by Hunter Barnes is published by Reel Art Press RRP £29.95
www.reelartpress.com
