Inside a fraction of a second, a whole life can be expressed. In images, language is preserved. Meet these Midwest photographers collecting stories and preserving culture simply: with a camera and a conversation.
Lakota Language
Cheyenne River Lakota Nation member Dawn LeBeau, Wanápín Sapá Wíŋ, grew up sitting at grandmother’s table, listening to the flurry of Lakota language between family members.
LeBeau would try and translate, slowly learning Lakota through elders and community classes. Then the camera entered, making a single photo of Uncle Leon Red Dog several years back. It was a natural move for the independent photographer.
Since then, LeBeau has gone on to photograph 35 Cheyenne River enrolled members as part of the Lakota Language Project. It’s cultural storytelling.
“I understand the history of how photography could have harmed our community in the past, but also is used as a resource and as an important piece of storytelling,” LeBeau says, noting the difficult history of boarding schools and images curated by non-Native people.
LeBeau hopes the project’s outdoor, large-scale, seasonal gallery at Cheyenne River is a call to action: Preserve Lakota language and culture; ask elders questions while you can; build trust, joy, and kinship among Cheyenne River Lakota Nation members.
LeBeau has also co-created photographs with and to honor women from the Očeti Sakowin Titunwan bands of the Mnicoujou, Siha Sapa, Itazipčo, and Oóhenuŋpa on the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation. They are currently on view at the Augsburg Galleries in Minnesota.
“Lakota people, we’ve always been storytellers,” LeBeau says.
“And who better to tell our story than us?”
Family Celebrities
Olena Izbenko emigrated from Ukraine to escape the war nearly three years ago. The community she found in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, wrapped its arms around Izbenko and her young family.
She wanted to give back, so she used what she knows best: her camera. Izbenko reached out to the local senior home and asked if anyone would like their portraits done. “Our Family Celebrities” was born.
Debuting at the MUSE art venue in Sturgeon Bay over the summer were 10 black-and-white photographs. They feature simple but detailed images of the elders Izbenko got to know through the project, plus story snippets of their lives.
“Each story, it’s like a book. It’s like a window in some life because it’s not just picture. Every face you see holds a story full of humor, maybe some hope and hard stories,” she says.
Through “Our Family Celebrities,” Izbenko interviewed a retired ballerina and a scuba diver; she documented folks with a love of baking carrot cake, or dressing up as a clown while doting over his wife with cancer. She met Francis and Rosemary, LouAnn and Nancy; Howard and Fred. And in turn, so did we.
“This is 10 live stories captured in faces. [It] is a vision about the people who lived through so much and about their interesting lives, strengths, their kindness and their quiet dignity of growing older,” Izbenko says.
After the gallery showings, Izbenko returned the photos to the subject’s families, where some used the images at celebrations of life services. They were left with one last smile—and a story or two—of their loved ones who have shown up in our community, our gallery walls, and in our memories.