12/17/2025
A few months ago I volunteered to photograph a vigil held here in Billings to bring awareness to the number of missing indigenous people. Among the attendees was a face that caught my attention and I found myself offering to make photos for him, believing he could model, but also, because it felt like something unfinished was at hand that I couldn’t name. His mother mentioned she’d just asked the lord to ‘help this boy model’ so it felt very kismet. ✨ A few years ago I came across a small pocket size book of Indigenous Wisdom with photos made by Edward S. Curtis. I became obsessed with Edward’s work — the beauty of his images and his story — and I resonated with the way he had made it his life’s work to preserve the indigenous ways. Also the work felt familiar, in a way? ✨ When George Old Elk (the young gentleman) and I began our shoot I learned that he was the 5th generation descendant of Curley — a Crow Scout who was linked to a battle here in Montana in 1876. I felt a sense of lineage come through during the shoot, and felt a ‘responsibility’, in a way, to do right by it. A few weeks after the shoot I ended up visiting the site of the battle (the Battle of Little Bighorn) — surprised that it felt familiar — and found out that Edward Curtis had also visited that site, 40 years later. ✨ To be linked to a photographer who’s work resonates deeply, of a past subject linked to a current subject, through the act of photography — all of whom had walked on the same land — made for a very profound experience all around, and what I would call a ‘timeline collapse’. ✨ To be given this gift in a time when chaos is more rampant than ever feels like an anchor to the only timeline that exists — the present moment — and I’m hopeful for more of these experiences in the future ❤️🔥 The last two slides are 01) George Old Elk’s ancestor Curley, and 02) Edward Curtis with three Crow Natives likely named Goes Ahead, Hairy Moccasin, and White Man Runs Him, along with one unnamed / unidentified Crow Interpreter. May we know and say all unidentified/missing indigenous people’s names 🔴 ✋
