Marcia Keegan's photographs of the Navajo and Pueblo Indians - photographs of their land, their days, their lives — are awesome testimony to the richness of a way of being; they are pictures that open a window onto a breathtaking and singular world.
The Navajo and the Pueblo lead lives of contrast: shadow and light, plains and mountains, earth and sky. This book of more than 70 full-color photographs, born of a long and intimate relationship the photographer has shared with her subjects, renders these contrasts into images of enduring power. Each picture is the extracted essence of the Indians' world; each embodies, in the boldness of its composition, the subtle strength of its color, the very substance of their lives.
The Indians now see this life threatened by the encroachments of the modern world. Marcia Keegan enables us to appreciate what might be lost, to cherish what still remains — finally, to accept the invitation of the ancient Tewa chant:
Come and be blessed, come to the people of the village and let them give you thanks.
They will feed your spirits with
corn meal
and sing their songs of love for you.
The people will wear the costumes of ceremonial,
and their women will shower blessings upon you.
