Inter-tribal Native American Pow Wow

Native American cultural gatherings, called Pow Wow, are educational to all those who attend. There is history, a spiritual context, dances, singing and art displays. I am a novice in the ceremonial traditions of such inter-tribal gatherings, but over the past 5 years have attended a few Pow Wows and actively pursued a self-education of their historical context.

This morning I went to the annual Pow Wow in Prescott. After buying a Navajo cartouche pendent from a jeweler who works with copper, silver and turquoise stone, I attended the Grand Entry of the day. This is a large scale gathering where many dance, sing and promise their involvement in supporting tribal communities.

As a street photographer, any gathering with so many people is heaven to me! But I am always respectful of the norms or rules in photographing people and respecting their privacy. My goal is never to “photograph people” but to capture a human behavior or attitude that is generic and relevant across cultures.

And I will not show faces in this essay. BUT, there was one split second when a young girl walked into my camera’s field of view and I could not resist taking a non-identifying profile shot. And then she walked away.

Here is that photo:

What makes this shot intriguing is what was written on that blanket:

So, she was displaying the name and history of a soldier. She wanted all at the Pow Wow to learn about CPL Eddie C. Begaye. Therefore I feel that my posting a profile of her and the name of the soldier is doing what she wanted to do, but hopefully to a much larger audience among the readers of my blogs.

During the Grand Entry, I focused on the traditional attires, the chanting rhythm, and the sacred paraphernalia used during the dance to the beat of the drum.

I like the sacred representation of feathers, the rattle of metal beads, and the elegance of turquoise stones:

Also the dance movement captured on a two-dimensional plane:

 And perhaps the rapprochement between the Southwest, the west and native cultures:

… As I often try, I stayed away from taking photos of portrayers of Native American warriors on horses, tribal leaders in feather or buffalo skin head covers, and children wearing deerskin moccasins.

My goal is to tell a story. A story people own but sometimes do not know they are telling it.

September 23, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018

Annual Highland Games in Prescott, AZ

The Highland Games are an annual tradition in Prescott, Arizona. Scottish pipe playing, whiskey tasting, clan colours and accoutrements, and of course games of “throwing things.”

I like being there as the eclectic and eccentric nature of the crowd allows for photographic experimentation.

As I was walking around, a photographer carrying a tripod and two cameras with lenses more expensive than my car looked at my 1970s mechanical camera hanging from my neck and said:

                          “Will you be able to catch any action with that lightbox?”

And as she smiled at her comment, I decided to capture what my trusty Nikon F and Illford 100 ASA film could freeze in time, rather than capturing the events per se.

So, I decided to focus on body postures among the throwers.

But first, I was attracted by the intricate tattoos among many of the athletes and wanted to report on one aspect of the body posture featuring the tattoos.  That is why I started this post with my favorite contextual photograph.

Ok, so my goal was to capture the different stages of upright weight throwers. The idea behind this competition is to stay under a giant H- frame and try to get the weight over the middle bar of the H. This bar is elevated during the competition till no one can get the weight over it.

It is like an Olympic high jump where the “jumper” is the weight thrown by the athlete.

For most athletes, the first posture seems to be

Which is followed by a movement to build momentum

Then the final swing 

And the vertical release of the weight

I also took a couple of photos of swirling horizontal throw movements of the hammer throw equivalent. The subjects were the exquisitely tattooed man and woman which I thing gives the highland games a historic and anachronistic context.

First the preparation

Then the rotation

… So, did I capture the games? No, but I tried to capture a dimension that indirectly addresses human body posture, movement and perhaps the spirit of these historic games.

 P.S/ … During the scanning of the printed photos I played with some of the scanning settings which gave the film shot a totally digital flavor. But also many of the shots now had their background blurred and the focused person in the forefront more actively.

So, I left these settings on during the scan function.

September 19, 2018

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2018