#Photographs

[macphoto]

lovely spring daffodils. 3.26.25

[yorgunluklara]

sen her zaman ilkbahardın gözlerimde, ben çoktan solmuştum haberin olmadı...

[bonjovi1988]

Chicago

[jefkphotography]

Grass and trees.

Photo.

[uwmspeccoll]

The author, Angela Hovak Johnston.

Johnston and Marjorie Tungwenuk Tahbone, traditional tattoo artist.

Catherine Niptanatiak: "I designed my own, something that represents me and who I am, something that I would be proud to wear and show off, and something that would make me feel confident and beautiful. . . . I have daughters and I would like to teach them what I know. I would like for them to want to practice our traditions and keep our culture alive."

Cecile Nelvana Lyall: "On my hand tattoos, from the top down, the triangles represent the mountains. . . . The Ys are the tools used in seal hunting. . . . The dots are my ancestors. . . . I am so excited to be able to truly call myself and Inuk woman."

Colleen Nivingalok: "The tattoos on my face represent my family and me. The lines on my chin are my four children -- my two older boys on the outside protecting my daughters. The lines on my cheeks represent the two boys and the two girls on either side. The one on my forehead represents their father and me. Together, we live for our children."

Doreen Ayalikyoak Evyagotailak: "I have thought about getting traditional tattoos since I was a teenager. . . . When I asked the elders if I could have my own meaning for my tattoos, they said it wouldn't matter. My tattoos symbolize my kids."

Mary Angele Takletok: "I always wanted traditional tattoos like the women in the old days. I wanted them on my wrists and my fingers so I could show I'm Inuk."

Melissa MacDonald Hinanik: "As a part of celebrating my heritage and revitalizing important traditional customs that form my identity, I believe I have earned my tattoos. I am a beautiful, strong young woman. I am a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, and an active community member. I reclaim the traditional customs as mine, I re-own them as a part of who I am."

Star Westwood: "We still have some of our culture, but some things are slowly dying. Having tattoos helps us keep our culture alive. . . . . My tattoos represent my dad and my dad's dad. The ones closest to my wrists represent my sisters."

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National Tattoo Day

July 17 is National Tattoo Day. To celebrate, we present some images from Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines: Revitalizing Inuit Traditional Tattooing, compiled by Angela Hovak Johnston, co-founder with Marjorie Tahbone of the Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project, with photographs by Inuit photographer Cora DeVos, and published in Iqaluit, Nunavut by Inhabit Media Inc. in 2017.

For thousands of years, Inuit have practiced the traditional art of tattooing. Created the ancient way, with bone needles and caribou sinew soaked in seal oil, sod, or soot, these tattoos were an important tradition for many Inuit women, symbols etched on their skin that connected them to their families and communities. But with the rise of missionaries and residential schools in the North, the tradition of tattooing was almost lost. In 2005, when Angela Hovak Johnston heard that the last Inuk woman tattooed in the old way had died, she set out to tattoo herself in tribute to this ancient custom and learn how to tattoo others. What was at first a personal quest became a project to bring the art of traditional tattooing back to Inuit women across Nunavut.

Collected in this book are photos and stories from more than two dozen women who participated in Johnston's project. Together, these women have united to bring to life an ancient tradition, reawakening their ancestors' lines and sharing this knowledge with future generations. Hovak Johnston writes: "Never again will these Inuit traditions be close to extinction, or only a part of history you read about in books. This is my mission."

Reawakening Our Ancestors' Lines forms part of our Indigenous America Literature Collection.

Angela Hovak Johnston (right) with her cousin Janelle Angulalik and her aunt Millie Navalik Angulalik.

View other posts from our Indigenous America Literature Collection.

[dappermouth]

...the patio prince…the lord of lounge...

[retrogamingblog2]

Pokemon Manhole Covers in Japan

[blackmusicdaily]

Soul Train Dancers at a photoshoot (1970s)

[macphoto]

nice short walk. 3.26.25

[yesterdaysprint]

The Sand Mountain Banner, Albertville, Alabama, November 10, 1927

[dragoncuspid]

A skunk was foraging in my yard this morning, I’m so happy he stuck around! (Also had a staring contest with a squirrel)

(Photos taken by me on FujiFilm X-T30)

[thebonesofhoudini]

Buy physical media. Buy CDs. Buy records. Buy tapes. Buy books. Buy physical artwork or prints. Take photos of yourself and get them developed at a photo processing booth. Write your thoughts down in a journal. Why? Because as this world get more digital, what's physical will slowly but surely disappear. There will be less things you can touch and feel, and more things that you can see and not touch. You can post all the digital pics you want on social media...nothing is assured and those pics and those platforms could be gone in an instant. An album on streaming platforms will never be the same as the original album in your hand with the liner notes, as versions of that album can get removed, and/or replaced with re-recorded material (since the artist doesn't own their masters). Books go out of print. And staring at a jpeg (no matter how much you paid for it *cough cough* NFTs) of an artwork will never be the same as owning the actual artwork or a print of it.

Preserve these things. If not for yourself, then for future generations.

[herigo]

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Welch Family Portrait – Howard Galleries // Temple Family, Lena Ward, and Fannie Wait in Yard at 811 Madison St., ca 1897 – unknown photographer // Growing Sideways – Noah Kahan

[uwmspeccoll]

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Celebrating Artist Gordon Parks!

In a 2001 interview with the oral history project The History Makers, American photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks (1912-2006) was asked to define his profession: “I think I was an artist,” he says, “photographer, writer, painter, poet, film director, and a lover.” He laughs. “Renaissance man. That’s what we call a lover” He might’ve added musician, composer, and documentarian. Parks was born in Kansas in 1912, left home at fifteen after the death of his mother, played piano and sang in brothels for money, worked in a Chicago flop house after the stock market crash, and found himself inspired by FSA photographs in the 1930s. After receiving work as a commercial photographer, he won a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for his work documenting Chicago’s South Side, and was invited to join the Farm Security Administration himself.

The photographs highlighted here are drawn from his work at this early point in his long and dynamic career. They are reprinted in the 2018 book Gordon Parks : The New Tide, Early Work, 1940-1950, edited by Philip Brookman, consulting curator of photography at the National Gallery of Art. The book captures Parks’ work in and out of commercial photography, government projects, celebrity profiles, and his early years with LIFE magazine – where he would work until it stopped monthly publication in 1972. Parks was known for earning the trust of his subjects, and not betraying it. In a remembrance of Parks by one of his former editors at LIFE, Barbara Baker Burrows recalls Parks’ charm, and the confidence he earned, whether he was capturing foreign militaries, street gangs, celebrities, or civil servants. Parks died in 2006 at the age of 93.

For more about Gordon Parks and his legacy, visit The Gordon Parks Foundation.

See more Black History Month posts.

--Amanda, Special Collections Graduate Intern