July 7, 1997
Press Articles :: Absouuteats.com
David Michael Kennedy is regarded as one of New Mexico's most celebrated photographers. His splendid palladium prints of southwest lands and skies, historic sites, Native American Dancers from the New Mexico Pueblos and the Lakota Reservations in South Dakota, as well as portraits of celebrities like Bob Dylan, Isaac Stem and Bruce Springsteen are some of the finest photographs being made today. The eight palladium print photographs exhibited in Lakota Dancers were made between 1995 and 1999 as part of Kennedy's ongoing photographic documentation of the Lakota Nation. Kennedy's photographs of American Indians describe the finest aspects of their lives; the haunting beauty of their rituals, their tenacious hold on traditions, and their hope for a better future.
One of Kennedy's photographs in the exhibit describes a Lakota who has become a Heyoka, or 'contrary person'. Heyokas are beings with immense power to control the weather and certain illnesses. Becoming a Heyoka, or a 'Thunder Dreamer' happens to those who have dreamed of thunder or lightning, or been struck by lightning. These ambivalent figures embody dualities of sorrow and laughter, good and bad, male and female principles.
