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Indepth Arts News:
"DAVID MICHAEL KENNEDY: Lakota Dancers"
1999-07-30 until 0000-00-00
Andrew Smith Gallery Inc.
Sante Fe, NM,
USA United States of America
David Michael Kennedy is regarded as one of New Mexico's most celebrated
photographers. His splendid palladium prints of southwest lands and skies,
historic sites, Native American Dancers from the New Mexico Pueblos and the
Lakota Reservations in South Dakota, as well as portraits of celebrities like
Bob Dylan, Isaac Stem and Bruce Springsteen are some of the finest photographs
being made today. The eight palladium print photographs exhibited in Lakota
Dancers were made between 1995 and 1999 as part of Kennedy's ongoing
photographic documentation of the Lakota Nation. Kennedy's photographs of
American Indians describe the finest aspects of their lives; the haunting
beauty of their rituals, their tenacious hold on traditions, and their hope for
a better future.
One of Kennedy's photographs in the exhibit describes a Lakota who has become a
Heyoka, or 'contrary person'. Heyokas are beings with immense power to control
the weather and certain illnesses. Becoming a Heyoka, or a 'Thunder Dreamer'
happens to those who have dreamed of thunder or lightning, or been struck by
lightning. These ambivalent figures embody dualities of sorrow and laughter,
good and bad, male and female principles.
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