The Standing Rock Portraits: Sioux Photographed by Frank Bennett Fiske 1900-1915

by Murray Lemley

The Standing Rock Sioux of Fort Yates in the west of North Dakota have been frequently in the news recently because of the demonstrations against the oil pipeline that crosses their land. Over 100 years ago Frank Bennett Fiske (1883-1952) photographed members of the Standing Rock people in his studio in his birth place Fort Yates. The men and women he portrayed were his friends and Native Americans living in the reservation. With a big studio camera, he made photos that have a tremendous depth, on glass negatives that have seldom been shown to the public. Now for the first time these photos are published in a book. Photographer and graphic designer Murray Lemley, also from North Dakota, made a selection of the images for this world premiere of Fiske's work.

"These pictures show a historical and artistic vision of proud people in a difficult transitional period. The glass negatives of Frank Fiske are a sumptuous source of information and understanding" - Rod Slemmons. American photography expert.

Genres: Nonfiction

144 pages, Hardcover

Published August 21, 2018

Reviews

[andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This coffee table type book caught my eye in a library display. I’ll be honest I just skimmed the photographer bio in the beginning in order to get to the portraits and their descriptions. Who wants to read about a racist white guy anyways? But the work he did was important in the end even if his motives were iffy. It was a beautiful look at a vastly under-documented piece of history, and even less represented from what documentation there is. The portraits were in great shape and it was cool to see how specific the descriptions were about the indigenous peoples’ clothes and accessories.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Large format book with nice black and white photos of Native Americans, or "noble savages" as they were unfortunately and inaccurately often described by the Europeans who photographed them. It seems to me that these images alone are powerful enough to disintegrate those untruthful myths about the Native Americans, but perhaps no one was looking at them that closely. We can look now with the help of these photos and remember one of the darkest times in US history.

[bibliotekker Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book with brief text and wonderful photographs from the work of an important photographer. I would have liked to have more text and more photographs, but for what is here, it is excellent. Fiske is certainly lesser known than household names of western photography like Edward Curtis and D.F. Barry, but he is just as important.