Pamela J. Peters

Diné (Navajo)

Born 1970, Shiprock, New Mexico

Pamela J. Peters is a Diné multimedia documentarian from the Navajo Reservation where she was born and raised. Her first clan is Tachii’nii (Red Running into the Water clan), which she uses to identify her photography. Pamela’s work captures not only still images documenting people, cultures, and environments; she also incorporates storytelling with video digital capturing that is completed with a unique and distinctive creative style. Her creative lens explores the history and identity of her participants, which she calls Indigenous Realism, which often places a nostalgic aesthetic in her photographic images. She incorporates black and white photography to express her photography series: “Legacy of Exiled NDNZ” that explores the 1950s Indian Relocation program; and “Real NDNZ Re-Take Hollywood,” that evocates studio-style portraits of Hollywood glamour of the 1940s and 1950s. Her photography has been featured at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, Arts District Los Angeles Photo Collective, These Days Gallery, Venice Arts Gallery, The Main Museum, Triton Contemporary Museum, Glendale ReflectSpace Gallery, and featured in the Los Angeles Times, Reuters News, Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, KCET Artbound, Pasadena Magazine, Indian Country Today, American Indian Quarterly Journal along with many speaking engagements.

MORE WORK
“Legacy of Exiled NDNZ” © 2014 series discusses the historical U.S. policy of the relocation of Indians to urban establishments in the 1950s through the 1960s, and the legacy it has created through today. It provides a narrative of seven Native adults currently living in Los Angeles, shot in a neorealist visual aesthetic reminiscent of Kent Mackenzie’s 1961 film, The Exiles. This photo was taken at Los Angeles Union Station with Spencer Battiest (Seminole), Vivian Garcia (Cherokee), Tony Moran (Navajo), Courtney Alex (Navajo), Gladys Dakam (Lakota), Heather Singer (Navajo) and Kenneth Ramos (Barona Band of Mission Indians).
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