Cheyenne River: Images

In 2005, I founded a photography program for youths on the Cheyenne River Native American Reservation in South Dakota, USA. In this ongoing program, my students and I are all photographers and subjects of each other’s work.

Our favorite locations are the fields and abandoned buildings on the fringes of town, forgotten places thick with the past that lend themselves to imaginary games and textured photographs.

Children have a unique ability to experience love, joy, and pain simultaneously, without compartmentalizing their experiences. I aim to convey this complexity. My images explore play as a vehicle through which youth reveal and negotiate their emotions, traumas, and desires. Empowered by the safety of their small town, children explore freely and develop a community of young people that operates largely without adult intervention.

(To view the children's photographs, click on My Viewpoint )