Toba Tucker photographs

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sova.nmai.ac.030

Provenance: P28392-P28393- Gift of Robert Menschel, 2000; P28414- Gift of Dr. Roland Force, 1986; P28394-P28414- Gift of Toba Tucker, 1983.

Summary: This collection contains 23 prints that were shot by photographer Toba Tucker of Diné (Navajo) portraits and landscapes from 1981 and Pueblo portraits from 1995-1997.

Biographical/Historical note: Toba Pato Tucker is a self-taught American professional photographer from New York City. Tucker started working in photography in the 1970s through teachings from photographers, Harold Feinstein and Toby Old. With their assistance she became proficient in developing negatives and printing in black and white prints. In 1980, she received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) which allowed her to live on the Navajo reservation and work with the Navajo-Hopi Land Dispute Commission of the Navajo Nation. This began her quest of photographing Native Americans. In addition to the grant from the NEA, she has been awarded many other grants, is published in several magazines and publications, has works in various museum collections, and has taught at New York's International Center of Photography. Tucker currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Photographic prints; Cibachrome (tm); Photographs

Citation: Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Toba Tucker Photographs, Collection NMAI.AC.030; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Processing Information note: NMAIA Review
Processing Information: Collection processed by Tazbah A. Gaussoin, Museum Specialist, 2020

Rights: Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.

Scope and Contents: This collection contains 23 prints by photographer, Toba Tucker. Of these prints, 21 were taken during the summer of 1981 in the Joint Use Area (Jeddito Island, White Cone, and Teesto) on the Navajo Reservation. These photographs were made with a 6x6-cm (2 ¼-sq.) SLR, 120-mm lens, and Koda-color II color-print film, and were taken in the local Chapter Houses using only natural lighting. Tucker primarily works in black-and-white but chose to process and print these photographs in color resulting in her first experiences with colored work. Of these prints, two portraits were taken from 1995 to 1997 during a two-and-a-half-year project funded by the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation which allowed Tucker to photograph traditional and contemporary Pueblo artists in New Mexico and Arizona. During this project Tucker explored the relationships between traditional, centuries-old techniques and the emerging vision of contemporary artists. This project led to the 1998 publication of Pueblo Artists: Portraits by the Museum of the New Mexico Press.

Restrictions: Access is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment.

NMAI.AC.030

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sv4e699b71d-45b3-47f2-9f7c-0eeaed22391f

NMAI.AC.030

NMAIA