Encore Episode: The Photographer Who Unvanished

In the 1890s, B.A. Haldane sets up a photography studio in Alaska and begins documenting the vibrant life of his Tsimshian community—even as non-Native photographers like Edward Curtis are trekking to reservations, documenting what they believe is a "vanishing race.” Quietly contradicting a president and scientists steeped in theories of white supremacy and evolution, Haldane and other Native artists offer an alternative vision only now being rediscovered. A story of resistance and resilience and what we miss by seeing only through our own lens.

You can learn more about Haldane in the work of Tsimshian scholar Mique’l Dangeli. And revisit the exhibition “In Our Hands” that featured Haldane and other Native photographers at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.