Good Pictures Are a Strong Weapon: Laura Gilpin, Queerness and Navajo Sovereignty
with Dr. Louise Siddons
What are the limits of political solidarity, and how can visual culture contribute
to social change? Lesbian photographer Laura Gilpin’s classic 1968 book The Enduring Navaho was an attempt to portray Indigenous lives and communities without appropriating
or romanticizing them. In this talk, Siddons explores the extent and limit of Gilpin’s
success, illuminating the intersectional politics of photography, Navajo sovereignty,
and queerness over the course of the twentieth century. Framing Gilpin’s lesbian identity
and her long relationship with the Navajo people around questions of allyship, Siddons
uses Gilpin’s work to explore the limitations of white advocacy in a political moment
that emphasized the need for Indigenous visibility and voices.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Helmerich Browsing Room, OSU Library
Reception to Follow
About the Author
Louise Siddons is Professor of Visual Politics, Head of the Department of Art and
Media Technology, and Director of the Winchester Gallery at the Winchester School
of Art, University of Southampton. Her publications include Good Pictures Are a Strong Weapon (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) and Centering Modernism (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), as well as contributions to Art and Activism in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2022), Rethinking Regionalism (Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, 2021), and Authenticity in North America (Routledge, 2019). Her essays have been published in American Art, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Panorama, the British Art Journal and African American Review.
Sponsors
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities, the OSU Library, American Studies and Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies.
Event PhotosLouise Siddons Presentation
