Growing up in a small farming town in Kansas, I saw people different from me in a very narrow way. I learned through my study of Aesthetic Realism that my feeling I was “different” often meant “better than.” This was unjust and inaccurate.
As photographer and person, I now hope to see people justly, with the depth and meaning they deserve. This was my purpose as I had the privilege to meet and photograph this woman of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
The light from the window reveals her deep expression. The turquoise and silver she wears show vividly some of her culture and history. Her face is partially concealed behind the blurred threads of her loom suggesting the mystery in her; that there is more to be known and understood.
—Dan McClung
THE HONORING EYE: 18 Photographers Look at the World