Photography on the navajo Nation

[RAP]

I think it is much more then just some obnoxious individuals causing problems. The publishing of photographs can bring publicity and tourists and more people to these areas where the residents may want to maintain their privacy and limit development, or stop it all together. I cannot say I blame them.

I think it is indicative of just how the world population is growing and the shrinking of the places where one can find some solitude and peace and quiet.

I have been approached by NPS rangers at the Delaware Water Gap and told I would have to register and pay $500.00 to photograph. I cannot afford that and told him so, that such an expense is cost prohibative! I told him that I was shooting freelance and any usage would be strictly editorial and not advertising. He understood and left me alone.

 

[Flotsam]

Remember old wilderness rule: "Leave nothing but footprints. Take nothing but pictures"?
I guess now it is: "Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but Dollars".

 

[RAP]

I have been looking at this thread for FAR too long and all I see is Flotsam's response. Let's see how long a RAP response lasts?

 

[jamnut]

Land of the free?

ZUni is closed to photography because of photographers not following the rules and thinking they they can take pictures of what ever they want.

This sounds remarkably like the situation in Communist Russia, where you had to be escorted everywhere by a guide, and avoid taking pictures of "sensitive" areas.

What you are free to do in the USA today is: drive to Walmart in your SUV(talk on cell phone), buy some synthetic food, return home, and enjoy synthetic food parked in front of imported TV which shows crap. Your movements and purchases will have been recorded. Any deviation from this is seen as unpatriotic, radical, strange.
Thanks to all.

 

[Dave Wooten]

Unfortunately some photographers are rude demanding and disrepectful,
and some of them make a good living at it! i.e. the paparazzi etc...and some journalists paid to get the 'story' at all costs.....however another point to consider.....if the area is set up as a commercial venture can 'they' have it both ways? and why do I have to photograph it anyway? I have seen it and I appreciate it, I dont need that one on my wall and I personally dont have to prove I was there...

I have visited and yes photographed most of the commercially accessable ancient architecture in the southwest....havent printed too much of it, felt priviledged to see it...others since the 1800's have photographed it and published the same in grand fashion.....it seems to me if one was promoting an area to tourists for the financial income from that specific industry one would welcome photography.....commercial film and industrial ad photography in another matter...In the Vegas area most major American and European auto companys pay big bucks to shoot film and stills in the Red Rock Canyon area and the Valley of Fire area as well as the dry lakes....and well they should...they can become an enviromental hazzard and they make millions on that particular promotional photography, however If I am harassed on a reservation on in a National or state park about taking my photos,,,because I have a big camera or because it looks like I just might know what I am doing....I do not have to photography there!

State parks in Nevada now can require a daily permit if you photograph with the intent to 'archive' the photos or negs with the intent of future sales!

Now if i thought I was going to make some big buck this year on those photos....I would pay the fee.....but I am not so I cease my photography when told I needed a permit......it happened one time.....

I do also photograph in the Grand Canyon with the blessing of the local Native Americans there and also have a Vacation home inside Lake Mead National park....havent been harassed there but they are now starting to charge fees just to enter that remote area and to launch my 17 foot canoe with its 3 hp engine....whatever

Cheers
Dave in Vegas

 

[Donald Miller]

I have photographed at Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley among a lot of other places including Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep, Mesa Verde, Montezuma's Castle, Bandimere National Monument and others. I have never paid a fee to photograph in over twenty years of doing this. I have photographed with everything up to 12X20 and have never incurred anyone, other then other tourists, who asked me what I was doing. At times when people ask me the purpose of my photographs, I respond by stating that they are for my own use (which in fact they are...even if I am selling them).

I think that the reason for a guide in the bottom of Canyon de Chelly is for the tourist's own protection. I hear that there is quicksand that will swallow a pickup. I would rather pay a guide then buy a new 4WD.

I think that there is an inordinant and irrational emphasis on the interpertation of the letter of the law. While the law may state something, I believe that the local authorities are very understanding so long as the photographer doesn't act like an arrogant a**hole.

 

[mark]

Jamnut- You seem to miss the point. The reason that many of these places are closed is for the same reason you might lock your door at night or when you leave. The places I wrote about, and where I live have suffered from serious cultural thievery. You also may not understand that the concept of the pueblo as a whole is not that much different from the way you view your single house. I will try to explain.

To puebloan tribes-A term assigned to them first by conquoring spaniards and then by archaeologists-the pueblo is one large house. It contains many single residences but the village is considered one entity. Hope that makes sense. Just as you have the right to close your door to keep the public from wondering in and out of your dwelling they have the right to to the same. It is just that their "dwelling" is what we non-puebloan peoples would call their village. Are you deniying freedom to someone or taking freedoms away by closing and locking your door? No. Neither are they.

By cultural thievery I mean their religious artifacts and entire dwellings; their common utilitarian artifactsl; the skelatal remains of their ancestors; any part of their lives that were different from the dominant culture of the time was considered free for the taking in the name of "science". How many of us would like to watch as our relatives were exumed from the grave and put on display in a museum or home? After so much of this you start to say enough is enough.

DOnald,
For the most part you are right. Canyon De Chelly is a dangerous place to wonder on your own. I watched the sand claim a duece and a half one afternoon. I think my dad has pictures of it. I have also been pulled out of quicksand myself (I was invited to spend a few nights in the canyon by friends of the family when I was in junior high) That stuff is fast. But safety is not the main concern. The main concern is destruction of culturally significant sites, pot hunting, and trespassing in homes. Before Canyon De Chelly was made a guide only environment tourists would walk right into a person's home. the Navajo living at the bottom of the canyon were treated like side show curiosities. they choose to live in very primitive conditions. Making it guide only allows people to go on living relatively undisturbed. And give s a means of employment to those folks who wish to become guides. If you are where you should not be, in any of the parks, you should expect to be escorted back to your proper place and even asked to leave the park.

This is how it was explained to me by both rangers and residents of the canyon and I have no reason to question their motives.

As the article says you can take all the shots you want if you are not shooting for profit. If you get a back country pass you are free to take your personal shots off the road-in the area designated on your pass. While I do not really agree with this, it is the way it is. I would love to go where I want when I want but, even off the reservation, no trespassing signs abound. And yes, you will be stopped and told to leave an area by rangers if the leasee of the land you are on calls and complains that you are on their land, and you have no permit. This is happening more and more often even if you are a completely nice guy. I do not know why this happening but it why I wrote the article. If no one complains then there is no problem. But, speaking from experience, it sucks to be set up for a shot and get told to leave as a ranger stands in front of your lens. It is easiest to not take the chance and get a permit. Places like Chaco Canyon-Canyon De Chelly-and other no fee areas, national parks, and munuments do not require Navajo Nation backcountry passes but you are held to the rules of the parks for obvious reasons.

You can also be sure that the powers that be often do not fully understand their own rules and regulations. The Navajo tribe has been working for over a year to clarify procedures, and to make sure folks in the Gvt, who pass out the passes are all on the same page. It is a slow process. Out here on the "Big Rez" things move on indian time, and you just have to accept it.

 

[Aggie]

While the reservations are technically the USA, they are as land unto their own people. The native Americans that inhabit each reservation control that land and police it. They govern it themselves. They have the right to not allow their culture or their land to be disturbed by insensitive people. If you truely want to photograph there, it never hurts to ask. You might even be told that you need a guide. This guide is not to be forbidding you to take a photograph, but to help you understand that the people who inhabit that area have their rights of privacy like anyone else. They are allowing us access to their lands, we should respect tghem and listen to their wishes. They don't know if you are any different from that guy with his various cameras hanging around his neck who blows smoke in their faces, drinks beer on their land, and acts the ugly tourist trampling over their personal possessions. Those types just mentioned have ruined it for the rest of us who cared enough to be sensitive to their feelings and culture.