Portrait of Chantelle Keshaye Pahtayken & Shay Pahtayken, Plains Cree, Ryan RedCorn (born 1979)

Ryan RedCorn describes this work:
“In this portrait, my goal was to capture the emblematic love and strength between a mother and daughter–a form of familial love and expression of value that can be recognized by all peoples regardless of language or cultural background. Chantelle and Shay collaborated with me to execute a photographic strategy of undermining tropes Americans have about Indigenous people. The volume of color present is an intentional counterweight to the black and white photographs the American subconscious inherited from previous generations and textbooks. This work forcibly places Indigenous people in the present with dignity and respect.”
RedCorn’s photographs displayed here relate to his research into the murders of Osage women in the 1920s for their land rights. RedCorn developed these large-scale photographs to honor modern-day Native women and their stories of strength and resilience. The grand scale and extraordinary quality of the photographs evoke visual sovereignty and self-expression. Most importantly for RedCorn, these works “reclaim large amounts of wall space on behalf of Indigenous peoples.”