Book Description

Through powerful case studies, Adjusting the Lens addresses the ways that the historical photographic record of Indigenous peoples has been shaped by colonial practices, and explores how this legacy is being confronted by Indigenous art activism and contemporary renegotiations of the past. Contributors to this collection analyze the photographic practices and heritage of communities from North America, Europe, and Australia, revealing how Indigenous people are using old photographs in new ways to empower themselves, revitalize community identity, and decolonize the colonial record.

About the Author

Sigrid Lien is a professor of art history at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is the author of Pictures of Longing: Photography and the Norwegian-American Migration and coeditor, with Justin Carville, of Contact Zones: Photography, Migration, and Cultural Encounters in the United States, among other works. She was also Norwegian team leader for the projects Photographs, Colonial Legacy, and Museums in Contemporary European Culture (PhotoCLEC, 2010–12), and Negotiating History: Photography in Sámi Culture (2014–17). Hilde Wallem Nielssen is a professor of intercultural studies at NLA University College, Bergen, Norway. Among her publications is Ritual Imagination: A Study of Tromba Possession among the Betsimisaraka in Eastern Madagascar and, with Sigrid Lien, Museumsforteljingar. Vi og dei andre i kulturhistoriske museum (Museum Stories: We and the Others in Cultural History Exhibitions). Her work encompasses rituals and religious movements, missionary ethnography, museum exhibitions, and photography, in particular photographs from Sámi areas.

Contributors: Elizabeth Edwards, Beth Greenhor, Ingeborg Høvik, Piita Irniq, Laura Junka-Aikio, Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Jane Lydon, Donna Oxenham, Carol Payne, Laura Peers, Mette Sandbye, Hanne Hammer Stien, waaseyaa'sin Christine Sy, Manitok Thompson, Deborah Kigjugalik Webster, Sally Kate Webster, Carol Williams, Christina Williamson