In almost any culture you examine, you might find that there are certain memories that every member of a generation has and in many cases those memories withstand the test of time and exist even today. However, with time and cultural differences, those memories are naturally appropriated into our brains. We obviously weren't alive hundreds of years ago, and yet we all know what an "indian" looks like thanks to the excessive use of the works of photographer, Edward Curtis. Many of his posed shots are very much staged and for Native Americans, these dull, colorless, and depressing representations of their heritage carry no weight in their minds because it is someone else's impression and not who they really are. Wendy Red Star brings this to mind as she recolors Curtis's black and white stills, and appropriates his work to bring the truth and respect back to her ancestors and heritage.
This does bring up the important point that many artists embrace, the importance of knowing and discovering your family heritage from whatever means, found photographs or documents, can have a huge impact on ones artistic choices and life. Kevin Miyazaki, for instance, given his Japanese family roots, has done a very satirical and yet saddening reality of the internment camps during World War II, by showing a brochure for the camp in the guise of a vacation brochure. He goes into specifics on the housing accommodations, making it seem like you have a choice of different houses, but in reality they are all basically the same. However, what has me puzzled is how found photographs, as in completely unknown to you photographs, can carry as much weight on the heart strings as a family photo something the artist connects to?
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