Stephen Hunt: Kitawaahsinnoon/The Land That Feeds Us

This is the premier exhibition of Stephen Hunt’s photographs. Hunt frames his photographs with a perspective of the land that connects to tribal stories or culturally significant events. Hunt, who is Blackfeet (Amskapii Pikaanii), Nez Perce (Nimipuu), Sioux (Sisseton), Pend d’Oreille (Ql'ispé), and Chippewa Cree (Ne Hiyawak), was raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation. His photographs span the Flathead Reservation, the Blackfeet Reservation, and the Blood Reserve, where his wife Chelsea is from. Hunt invites the viewer to experience his family’s travel between these places, poignant landscapes or events, and portraits of his daughters Ksiskstaki-aakii and Soyiikayii-aakii as they grow up and learn about their cultural heritage.

The exhibition features two distinct bodies of work: images of the land and portraits. Taken as a whole, the photographs demonstrate the diversity of Hunt’s interests and reveal a consistency in Hunt’s photographic eye for active compositions. The forced perspectives and close framing create strong diagonal lines throughout the show. Hunt’s consistency allows him to move between subject matter and successfully unite the images. In Land of the Goat, the viewer is put in the foreground, making it an active rather than a passive experience. In Chief Mountain, again the vantage point places the viewer in the frame on the steep angle of the mountainside. Both of these images reference traditional stories or knowledge revealed by the viewer’s familiarity with Native culture or by the title. When Hunt turns his camera’s lens to capturing people, his main subject is his family. But again, Hunt invites the viewer into the scene—looking over a shoulder as his wife is pinned with an award in Niikahkomimm, up at his daughter in her regalia, at the kitchen counter as the family prepares meat for the winter. The portraits are glimpses of intimate family moments. [...]

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website