Fotoeins Fotografie

questions of place & home

Posts from the ‘USA’ category

Fotoeins Friday: native Seattle, Alki Beach Park

For a late-winter afternoon in West Seattle, Alki Beach offers a quiet and breezy respite from the hustle and bustle of the downtown area which as the cityscape (and the presence of the Space Needle) shows is only a few miles away. The differences come as no surprise: the pace is slower, the sensibility is uncomplicated, outlook and livelihood directed by the adjacent waters of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound).⁣⁣⁣⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣Perhaps it’s the latter what the indigenous Duwamish and Coast Salish people were pondering when a group of white settlers in the Denny party came ashore in November 1851. With his own group, Chief Seathl (siʔaɫ, Si’ahl, Sealth) of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes arrived to meet the strangers from the sea. Today, a monument and various plaques around Alki Beach Park highlight how the Denny party attempted to start their new life in what is now West Seattle, before they pulled up stakes and moved the following April onto the high ground next to the muddy flats of what is now the Pioneer Square District. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣In its place, the city might have once been called “New York Alki” by early white settlers, but eventually, the growing city would take the name of the indigenous chief.⁣⁣⁣⁣ The intervening decades would see competing views of “place-stories” to fit future dreams and mourn the apparent loss of the “pristine past” without any acknowledgment of responsibility; both could and would be used to sell the image of the city.
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I made the photo above on 6 March 2020 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: 1/60-sec, f/11, ISO 800, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-h9L.

The Troll II, Alison Marks, Tlingit, The Troll, Fremont, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: native Seattle, The Troll II

Inside the museum, I turned the corner and I saw a representation of a troll with its hand on a half-buried car to the lower-right.

Wait a sec … that’s very familiar.

In acknowledgement of one of Seattle’s sculptural landmarks The Fremont Troll, indigenous Tlingit artist Alison Marks produced her version, “The Troll II”, for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington. Marks states:

The Troll II, Alison Marks, Tlingit, The Troll, Fremont, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA, fotoeins.com

Alison Marks, about her “The Troll II” in reference to The Fremont Troll.

Alison Marks became the first Tlingit woman to carve and raise a totem pole when her pole was raised in Yakutat, Alaska on 27 October 2019.

⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I made the photos above on 5 March 2020 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-ha5.

“Iconic Black Women”, by Seattle artist Hiawatha D

(Best you view these images NOT on a tiny mobile screen, but from your desktop or laptop. You can either view the scrolling gallery above, or move down into the post for the same images with important informative captions.)

As part of an ongoing journey to learn more about Seattle’s black community and their ongoing story, I visited the city’s Northwest African American Museum (NAAMNW) in March 2020. The museum’s permanent collection casts a spotlight on black migration within the United States, and the contributions by blacks to the nation and to the American Pacific Northwest. Also timely was the simultaneous visit of the NHL’s Black Hockey History mobile museum as part of their 14-city tour throughout North America.

I was especially moved by the museum’s special exhibition “Iconic Black Women: Ain’t I A Woman“, by Hiawatha D, an artist based in Seattle. His work and paintings highlight his story as a black man and black artist in America. His series of paintings “Iconic Black Women” is about positive images of strong confident black women who’ve been key cultural contributors to human rights, music, literature, and sport. On sight, the context, clothing, and body language for some of these figures may be immediate and familiar. But many of the people painted don’t have faces, which allows viewers, especially young women, to see themselves in these figures, sparking and strengthening a connection between viewer and iconic black women.

I would love to see another name added to this list of iconic black women: Viola Desmond.

( Click here to see images )

A Salish Welcome, Marvin Oliver, Shilshole, Duwasmish, Salmon Bay, Puget Sound, Salish Sea, Ballard, Seattle, WA, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday: native Seattle, A Salish Welcome

The western edge of present-day Ballard where Salmon Bay meets Puget Sound (Salish Sea) was once a lively place for local indigenous people, near k̓iłalabəd (“hanging on the shoulder”) and šəlšúlucid (“mouth of Shilshole”). The Chittenden locks would have been near or at the location of the former indigenous village of šəlšúl for the Shilshole people. The 2010 wood statue, “A Salish Welcome” by Marvin Oliver, stands facing Salmon Bay. With support from Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle Office Of Arts, the accompanying plaque for the statue reads:⁣⁣

‘A Salish Welcome’ blends traditional Salish forms with contemporary media to create a sculpture that honors the local indigenous people and celebrates the abundant and vital life on this restored salmon habitat. The Welcome Figure traditionally stood in a prominent place in a Salish village to welcome guests. It is intended to mark and enhance this gathering place for contemplating our rich cultural heritage and connecting with the native landscape. This monumental Salish figure in ceremonial robe greets us and reminds us that we are stewards of this evolving living landscape for new generations of salmon and people alike. The disk of salmon represents the vital life cycle of the Pacific salmon, creating a timeless ‘vision’ for future generations.

⁣Marvin Oliver who was of Quinault and Isleta-Pueblo ancestry passed away on 17 July 2019 at the age of 73.

I obtained place names from ⁣⁣from “An Atlas of Indigenous Seattle” by Coll Thrush and Nile Thompson with maps by Amir Sheikh, appearing in Thrush’s book “Native Seattle” (2nd edition, 2017).

I made the photo above on 5 March 2020 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime and the following settings: 1/1000-sec, f/8, ISO 1000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-h9C.

1-day in the US Southwest: Flagstaff to Vermilion Cliffs, US-89(A)

Above/featured: Vermilion Cliffs loom over the new and old Navajo Bridge at left and right, respectively.

The following takes place on the first half of day 9 (of 15) in our drive through the American Southwest. From Flagstaff, we’re heading north on highway US-89, past Cameron, through the northern limit of the Painted Desert, and next to the Echo Cliffs. At Bitter Springs, the highway splits, and we head northwest on US-89A to Marble Canyon, where Navajo Bridge crosses over the Colorado River. The highway continues west into the Arizona Strip, below Vermilion Cliffs, past Cliff Dwellers, and into House Rock Valley.

( Click here for images and more )

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