Research Catalog

Title

The grass shall grow : Helen Post photographs the native American West / Mick Gidley.

Author

Gidley, M. (Mick)

Publication

• Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2020]
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Post, Helen M.

Description

xvii, 162 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"The Grass Shall Grow is a succinct introduction to the work and world of Helen M. Post (1907-79), who took thousands of photographs of Native Americans. Although Post has been largely forgotten and even in her heyday never achieved the fame of her sister, Farm Security Administration photographer Marion Post Wolcott, Helen Post was a talented photographer who worked on Indian reservations throughout the West and captured images that are both striking and informative. Post produced the pictures for the novelist Oliver La Farge's nonfiction book As Long As the Grass Shall Grow (1940), among other publications, and her output constitutes a powerful representation of Native American life at that time. Mick Gidley recounts Post's career, from her coming of age in the turbulent 1930s to her training in Vienna and her work for the U.S. Indian Service, tracking the arc of her professional reputation. He treats her interactions with public figures, including La Farge and editor Edwin Rosskam, and describes her relationships with Native Americans, whether noted craftspeople such as the Sioux quilter Nellie Star Boy Menard, tribal leaders such as Crow superintendent Robert Yellowtail, or ordinary individuals like the people she photographed at work in the fields or laboring for federal projects, at school or in the hospital, cooking or dancing. The images reproduced here are analyzed both for their own sake and in order to understand their connection to broader national concerns, including the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act. The thoroughly researched and accessibly written text represents a serious reappraisal of a neglected artist." --Amazon.com.

Alternative Title

Helen Post photographs the native American West

Subjects

• Indians of North America
• Post, Helen M
• Indians of North America > West (U.S.) > Portraits
• Indians of North America > West (U.S.) > Pictorial works
• Portraits
• Pictorial works
• West United States

Genre/Form

• Pictorial works.
• Portraits.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Creating a read-and-see book -- Peopling Post's pictures -- Photographing a New Deal for the Indians.

Call Number

JFE 20-3215

ISBN

• 9781496216205
• 1496216202
• 9781496219428 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2019015589

OCLC

1090011310

Author

Gidley, M. (Mick), author.

Title

The grass shall grow : Helen Post photographs the native American West / Mick Gidley.

Publisher

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2020]

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Post, Helen M., photographer.

Research Call Number

JFE 20-3215