Chief Leo Pretty Young Man

March 9, 2018December 15, 2020

Chief Leo Pretty Young Man

Chief Leo Pretty Young Man; 1994

In March, 1994 I was in Calgary, Alberta Canada shooting a television commercial for Office Depot , this was part of their “Takin’ Care of Business” campaign. I had shot most of Office Depot’s television commercials since they were a small chain with just three stores.

We were shooting in and around the Calgary Saddledome covering the Calgary Stampede. The campaign was biographical, telling the stories of people of interesting businesses, showing them in their working environment Takin’ Care of Business.

When I travel for production, I always bring my still cameras, sometimes it would be a Wisner 4×5 technical view camera in a 45 pound backpack. Though this time it was a Mamaya RB-67 6x7cm medium format camera. Nowadays I tend to travel with a Nikon D8000 and bunch of lenses.

On this particular day, we had several of members of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation who participate in the Stampede events as actors in the commercial. One of them was Chief Leo Pretty Young Man. Leo was very active in the Indian Village at the Stampede and at the time a Blackfoot chief.

After our lunch break, I asked Leo if I could take a few minutes and photograph him and he was very happy to do so. We went into an empty conference room with a large window that flooded the space in soft daylight and in about ten minutes, I captured these shots.

As he posed for the images, he told me the story of how he was involved in the celebration in 1977 of the centennial of the First Nations Treaty No. 7. Wearing his buckskin outfit and headdress, he helped induct Prince Charles as an honorary member and chief of the tribe with the name Red Crow.

Chief Leo Pretty Young Man passed on a couple of years after these images where taken. He was instrumental in the development of Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park located on the Bow River east of Calgary, which opened in 2007, long after his death. This is where throughout most of the history of the Blackfoot people, they were able to safely cross the river on the Old North Trail. It is also the infamous site of the signing in 1877 of Treaty No. 7, where with little choice in the matter, the chiefs agreed to “cede, release, surrender, and yield up to the Government of Canada for Her Majesty the Queen (Victoria) and her successors for ever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever” to southern Alberta. http://www.blackfootcrossing.ca/index.html

With Prince Charles; 1977 – Getty Images

June 12, 2017December 15, 2020

Foxfire

Foxfire is the term for bioluminescence of some species of fungi or moss on the surface of wood. This is not to be confused with Firefox, the web browser a lot of us use, which has no bioluminescence at all. It was called in the past ‘fairy fire’ as it was a magical unexplained source of light in the forest.

A day-long heavy rain fell in the mountains of North Carolina as Winter was trying to decide it was time for Spring, and in that day’s twilight, the trees seemed to glow with ‘fairy fire’. It was quite remarkable and permeated the forest. As I stood admiring this phenomena, I pre-visualized a black and white image that was lit by this glow.

The photograph was made with a medium format Mamaya RB67.

Foxfire is also a group founded in 1966 to preserve and develop the public’s appreciation for Southern Appalachian culture – it’s history, people, and traditions – through artifacts, oral history, and programs that interpret, document and celebrate the region – it is located in the Northern Georgia mountains in Mountain City, which is about an hour east from my log cabin in Blue Ridge, GA. https://www.foxfire.org/

March 5, 2009December 15, 2020

The Ghost of Jim Crow

Stony Point, NC – 1993

I first became aware of Stony Point, NC in 1993 on a drive from Charlotte to Banner Elk. Old NC90 winds northwest on the way to US321. You parallel the train tracks past sleepy hamlets from a bygone era.

On my first trip through this small town in northwest North Carolina in 1993, I was startled to find this ghost of Jim Crow still visible on an abandoned brick building. It appeared that the place had once housed an upholstery company and a used car business. Though the signs on this building were all faded, and the building had experienced a fire in it’s past that had collapsed part of it, yet it still stood as testament.

Shocking in 1993 to still see signs like this in the south, I pulled over in the late afternoon and got out of my car to set up my medium format camera. The surroundings were completely empty. Though I had the feeling of eyes peering out from curtains in the nearby houses. I have been chased off of places before by irate property owners so my guard was up, as well as the hairs on the back of my neck as I quickly made this single image.

Flash forward twelve years later to 2005 and I am traveling near Stony Point and decided to see if the building still stands. Surprisingly it was. But this terrible reminder of history was finally demolished in late 2008. Good riddance.

Stony Point – 2005