Vintage Black & White Photographs, 1975 to 1992

The vintage black & white photographs offer a view of work made prior to the digital photography revolution. One series is from the early 1980ʼs and features Yupik Ladies from Western Alaska with their salt water grass artistry and another is “The Feather Series” about Indigenous people from North America who have persevered for over 500 years of living with colonizers, mostly from Europe. It is about profound oppression and rising above it. “The Feather Series” was made in 1992, 500 years after the arrival of Columbus. McNeil strove for beauty, poetry and simplicity with the work. The photograph “Real Indians” was crucial to McNeil’s future growth because it taught him that humor and irony were how he interfaced with life, and it was important to not deny that part of his identity. And to get out of the way and let it flow.