Artwork copyright Jeffrey Thomas. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1986.
Richard Poafbitty-Paint, 1984
Jeffrey Thomas
American Haudenosaunee Confederacy Onondaga (born 1956)
Location: Washington State University, Pullman
About the Artwork
Richard Poafbitty-Paint captures a ceremonial dancer applying face paint, and was taken by Native American documentary photographer Jeffrey Thomas at a Pow Wow in 1984. A print of this photograph is part of the Indian Art Center collection in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Thomas notes that his work is "greatly influenced by the need to reestablish our [Native American] visual identity and no longer rest on the work of non-Native photographers."
This artwork is part of Beyond Blue Mountains, a collection that was curated by late Tlingit (Native Alaskan) artist Jim Schoppert. It presents the work of Native American artists of diverse heritage, ideas, materials, and styles. The collection takes an in-depth look at the artists’ unique voices and interpretations of tradition.
This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Washington State University.
About the Artist
Native American artist Jeffrey Thomas (Onondaga) is a photographer, curator, and cultural theorist. His photographic practice explores historical images of Indigenous Peoples and places them in a new context. Thomas describes himself as an "Urban-Iroquois", and further explains that "My study of Indian-ness seeks to create an image bank of my urban-Iroquois experience, as well as re-contextualize historical images of First Nations people for a contemporary audience."Born in Buffalo, New York, Jeffrey Thomas studied at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His photographs are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., The British Museum in England, and many others.
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