Portraits Against Amnesia: archival recuperation in the work of Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie

Abstract

This article considers the work of contemporary photographer Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie (Taskigi/Diné). Part of the first generation of artists to popularize the field of contemporary Native American photography, her work engages with issues of identity construction, cultural memory, and representation in Indigenous communities. The article considers Tsinhnahjinnie's foundational concept of photographic sovereignty as explored through her interactions with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographic portraiture, both in her position as a viewer and as a cultural producer. Her reclamation of archival photographs in the photo-series Portraits Against Amnesia (2003); Double Vision (2010); and Damn! There Goes the Neighborhood (1998) facilitates an interpretive process that moves away from colonial narratives of representation. The article explores the ways in which the historical archive is paramount to these series, and functions as a catalyst for processes of recuperation and visual sovereignty.