Roland Reed: Artist/Photographer

Images of the Indian Past Roland Reed: Artist/Photographer

It was a time of transition for Arizona in the early 1900's, the Spanish influence had been broken by the onslaught of Anglo miners, ranchers, and settlers, and the native Indian tribes had been placed on reservations. It was the beginning and end of eras. And it was during these changing times that photographer Roland Reed passed through Arizona's Indian lands on several photographic expeditions, visiting especially the Hopi and Navajo reservations, to capture for posterity glimpses of traditional ways of life. Using primitive photographic equipment and his own sensitive nature, he created not mere pictures of the Southwest's desert tribes, however, but, as later critics would point out, veritable works of art. Born in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin in 1864, Reed, as a young boy, became fascinated with the Menominee Indians who lived on the north shore of Lake Poygan, across from his log cabin home. Their chief, Thundercloud, became his boyhood hero. Later as a young man infected with wanderlust, Reed made his way up into Canada then down the Mississippi, and out all through Arizona and the West. During his travels he supported himself doing crayon portraits and teaching nature sketching. It was also during this time that Reed first began recording the culture of various North American Indian tribes, among them the Hopi and Navajo not with a camera, with pencil and crayon. Although already somewhat familiar with photography and intrigued with its potential for documenting Indian life, Reed's first real introduction to the glass plate negatives and fruit-cratesize cameras of the time did not come about until years later. In 1893, in Havre, Montana, he became apprenticed to an itinerant photographer named Daniel Dutro. Together, the two men worked for several years supplying photos of Indians to the news department of the Great Northern Railroad. Reed was determined to accurately

text continued from page 34 portray Indian life as he saw it, concentrating on the old ways and traditions. To accomplish his goals, he thought nothing of spending enormous amounts of time researching dress and traditions. Days and even weeks of thought and preparation would go into the selection and planning of subject matter, atmosphere, and composition.

In a personal letter, Reed once remarked about his methods: “In approaching the Indian for the purpose of taking his picture, it is necessary to respect his stoicism and reticence, which have so often been the despair of the amateur photographer. A friend once characterized my method of attack as indicative of Chinese patience, bookagent persistence, and Arab subtlety. In going into a new tribe with photographic paraphernalia, although I hire ponies and guides, I never suggest the object of my visit.

“When the Indians, out of curiosity at last, inquire about my work, I reply casually, 'Oh, when I'm at home, I'm a picture-making man.' “Perhaps within a few days an Indian will ask, 'you say you are a picture-making man. Could you make our pictures?' “My reply is non-committal: 'I don't know. Perhaps.'

“'Would you try?'

“Sometime, when I feel like making pictures.' “Further time elapses, apparently the picture-making man has forgotten all about making pictures until an Indian friend reminds him of his promise. Then the time for the picture-making has arrived. The resultan intimate and detailed character study.” Details of Reed's travels in Arizona and his work with the Indians has been regretfully lost to history. All that remains today is his photography.

But Reed's attention to realistic detail and his efforts to convey the Indian life did not go unheralded. His photo The Pottery Maker won the Gold Medal at the 1915 San Diego Exposition for “pictures of educational and historical value.” But it was Eugene S. Bruce, a photography critic of the period, who was best able to convey the significance of Roland Reed's lifelong pursuits. He wrote in 1915: “As mere works of art these pictures have a value seldom found in photographs, but as pictorial evidences, as historical illustrations of an epoch that is almost closed, the pictures in this collection should be preserved and treasured.”