In the Fifth World: Portrait of the Navajo Nation

by Adriel Heisey, Kenji Kawano

Two exceptional photographers with distinctly different ways of seeing combine their talents to create In the Fifth Portrait of the Navajo Nation. Aerial photographer Adriel Heisey takes flight to capture the magnificent landscapes that are home to the Navajo people. His images are paired with those of Japanese photojournalist Kenji Kawano, whose intimate and exuberant portraits celebrate the enduring character and spirit of the Din ""the People."" Former Navajo Nation Chairman Peterson Zah contributes a personal foreword.

108 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kim Messier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Navajo Nation is not only the largest Native American reservation in the United States, it is also a land of juxtapositions. Traditional and modern; dry desert plains and snow-covered mountain peaks; Bureau of Indian Affairs tract housing and hogans; modern coal mines and ancient Yé’ii Bicheii dances. In the Fifth World illustrates many of these contrasts and presents similarities in a surprising manner, and so conveys a clearer understanding of contemporary Navajo people than most ethnological studies. Kawano and Heisey have lived and worked on the reservation; their ease and comfort with the Diné is apparent.

Kawano, a portraitist, focuses on pairs of individuals:—friends, parents and offspring, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings, and cousins—to best illustrate the “enduring values and remarkable resilience of the Navajo people.” He presents the Navajo in black and white portraits, never stereotyping them as the “noble savage.” There are no sheepherders in traditional attire astride a pony. Instead two herders are dressed in sneakers and blue jeans and carry a portable radio. A good many of the subjects are dressed in their military uniforms, proudly displaying love of, and distinguished service to, their country.

Heisey specializes in aerial landscape photography. His depictions of the reservation range from grand—Monument Valley—to sedate—an earthen sweat lodge. He takes the reader places they could never go as a tourist. His use of colors, shapes and shadows is astonishing.

Most of the book is laid out so a portrait appears on one page and a landscape on the facing page, vividly illustrating the connection between the people and the land. There are also connections between the photographs facing each other; some are subtle, and some not so.

Both photographers present a Navajo Nation that is rarely seen by outsiders. The portraits are as stunning, in the respect of their subjects, as the landscapes are in their respect of a vast and unapproachable land. One quickly discovers when investigating the Navajo that the land defines these people, they and their land are inseparable. To gain a better understanding of the Navajo people as they are now, not as they used to be; this book would make a terrific starting point.

[David Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book. Heisey gives us a birds eye view of the Navajo landscape, one of the most stunning places on earth.