NEWS
RELEASE

Documentary Photography Featured at State Museum

Date of Release: October 27, 2003

(University of Arizona, Tucson) Arizona State Museum (ASM) presents AN EVENING OF DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY, Wednesday, November 12, 2003. The public is invited to meet Sonoran photographer Alejandra Platt, and enjoy an evening full of insight and conversation with master Arizona documentary photographers David Burckhalter and Helga Teiwes, and folklorist Jim Griffith.

THE PROGRAM
This program will explore the work of three highly respected photo-documentarians who have dedicated their professional careers to visually examining and recording the indigenous cultures of the Greater Southwest.

The evening starts at 5:30 p.m. with a free reception and viewing of two exhibitions - With an Eye on Culture: The Photography of Helga Teiwes and Alejandra Platt's In the Name of God. During the reception Alejandra Platt will be available to talk about photographing the indigenous peoples of Mexico and sign copies of her recently published book, En el nombre de Dios (Hi Tech Editores, 2000).

At 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at the Center for English as a Second Language (one building east of ASM), David Burckhalter and Helga Teiwes will present slides of their work and recount some of their experiences documenting Indian cultures in Arizona and northern Mexico. Folklorist and historian, Jim Griffith will discuss the role of documentary work in cultural preservation and moderate an audience discussion. A dessert reception, exhibition viewing, and book signing by Burckhalter, Teiwes, and Griffith will follow at the museum.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS
David Burckhalter, a Tucson resident for 35 years, is a documentary photographer and ethnologist. A well-traveled aficionado of the Latin American and Asian milieu, he is probably best-known for his sensitive portraiture of people in the Southwest, especially of the Comcáac - the Seri Indians of Sonora, Mexico. His books, La Vida Norteña (University of New Mexico Press, 1998) and Among Turtle Hunters and Basket Makers (Treasure Chest Books, 1999), exemplify his gift for visual narrative. Burckhalter will discuss and show selections from his dynamic body of work, compiled during 30 years of friendship with the Comcáac, including early black and white portraits and recent color images of turtle hunting expeditions in the Sea of Cortez.

During her 30-year career at Arizona State Museum, photographer Helga Teiwes focused her lens on American Indian peoples across the state - their arts, their communities, and their lifeways. She also documented some of the most significant archaeological excavations throughout the region, in addition to artistically photographing the museum's extensive collections. Her artistic eye, intrepid spirit, and humanistic approach place her extensive body of work among that of the Southwest's leading documentary photographers. "Winning a person's trust is, to me, the basis to people photography," she says, "especially if you want to visit them again and become their friend. I have to admit that working on Indian reservations and collecting examples of visual ethnography was the photography I really liked to do the most." Teiwes' books include Hopi Basket Weaving and Kachina Dolls: The Art of Hopi Carvers (University of Arizona Press, 1991 and 1996 respectively).

Alejandra Platt, a well-known photographer from Sonora, Mexico, records the indigenous cultures of Mexico - from her native state of Sonora, to the Yucatan, Chihuahua, Cohauila, Nayarit, Jalisco, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Michoacan, Tabasco, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. Her photographs, sought after by museums and private collectors alike, have been included in group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, and Europe. Of her book and current exhibition at Arizona State Museum, both entitled En el nombre de Dios, Platt says, "My search within this complex of life is to know what I do not know…What I pine and long to demonstrate with this photographic exhibition is the admiration I possess for my race…and offer to you these photographs as a homage to the suffering that we still continue to cause without even knowing that we do not know." Her exhibition at ASM runs through November 15.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Folklorist and historian, Dr. James Griffith, is former director of the UA Library's Southwest Folklore Center and is currently a research associate at the Southwest Center. Despite officially retiring from his faculty position in 1998, Griffith continues to document cultural traditions, teach, and lecture on southern Arizona folk arts. "My commitment has always been to try to understand the cultures of this part of the border, and to pass along that understanding, as respectfully and accurately as possible, to the general public." Griffith is the host of a regular segment on Arizona Illustrated and is well known to Tucsonans as the founder of Tucson Meet Yourself. His books are Southern Arizona Folk Arts, Beliefs and Holy Places, Hecho a Mano (University of Arizona Press, 1988, 1992, and 2000 respectively) and Saints of the Southwest (Rio Nuevo Press, 2000). His most recent work is a CD entitled Heroes and Horses: Corridos of The Arizona-Sonora Borderlands (Smithsonian Folkways, 2002).