Art Daily: Monroe Gallery hosts Eugene Tapahe's healing "Jingle Dress Project" exhibit

 

Via ArtDaily.com

July 5, 2025

Monroe Gallery hosts Eugene Tapahe's healing "Jingle Dress Project" exhibit

Eugene Tapahe

Strength In Unity, Tetons National Park, the native land of the Shoshone, Bannock, Gros Ventre, and Nez Perce People, 2021

SANTA FE, NM.- Monroe Gallery of Photography opens a very special exhibit of large format photographs by Diné (Navajo) photographer Eugene Tapahe: Art Heals, The Jingle Dress Project.

The exhibit opens July 5, 2025, with an artist’s talk at 5:30 p.m. It will continue during the renowned Santa Fe Indian Market weekend, the world’s largest Native American art market, August 16 and 17, and conclude on September 14, 2025.

Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project originated from a dream Tapahe had during the COVID-19 pandemic, inspiring him to unite the land and people through the healing power of the Ojibwe jingle dress dance during uncertain times of illness and social differences. Since then, Tapahe has traveled thousands of miles documenting family members and friends dancing the healing honor dance in National Parks and Monuments, honoring the places where their ancestors once lived. Tapahe describes the images as “incredibly powerful and spiritual. Looking at them, I still can't believe I took these photographs. I believe this project is larger than myself, and I hope that when people view them, they feel the same way – that we are all blessed to be in the presence of such beauty.”

The Jingle Dress Project has brought healing to Tapahe’s family, friends, and ancestors and garnered national and international recognition for its unifying effect on communities. The images have raised awareness of many Native American issues, such as land acknowledgment, women’s rights, and, most importantly, the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).

During the project, Tapahe discovered one overarching metaphor. “I put my hand on one of the jingles and I shook it. That one jingle didn’t make any sound,” he said. “But together, they have the power to heal. As human beings, if we are able to unite ourselves and our prayers and make a beautiful sound as the jingle dress does, we could be powerful.”

Eugene Tapahe is a contemporary artist inspired by his Diné (Navajo) traditions and modern experiences. He is originally from Window Rock, Arizona. Tapahe has loved photography since the first time he picked up a camera, and realized the special gift for telling stories through his art. He has a deep desire to continue photographing the lands his ancestors once walked.

Tapahe has received numerous awards, including the Best of Show award for his photography at the Cherokee Indian Market (2018) and the Museum of Northern Arizona (2019), making him the first photographer to achieve this honor.

Tapahe has also been honored with two International Awards of Excellence from Communication Arts magazine. His work is in the permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC), the Birmingham Museum of Art (Alabama), The Toledo Museum (Ohio), Speed Art Museum (Kentucky), the Arizona State Museum, the Minnesota History Center Museum, and the College of Wooster Art Museum (Ohio).

 Via Musee Magazine

July 16, 2024

An exhibition of more than 40 photographs celebrates the extraordinary life and career of photographer Tony Vaccaro.

Monroe Gallery of Photography honors the late Tony Vaccaro with Tony Vaccaro: The Pursuit of Beauty, an exhibition continuing through September 15. On display are photographs from 1944 to 1979 which depict a wide range of subjects, from the battlefields of Europe to the rooftops of Manhattan. Vaccaro, who died on December 28, 2022 at 100 years old, had seen it all. --full review here.

Photo exhibit captures soldiers unaware of their fate in Philippines

By Chris Quintana
Via The Santa Fe New Mexican

In August 1940, members of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment gathered to train at Camp Luna near Las Vegas, N.M., before deployment to the Bataan Peninsula. Many never returned. Courtesy New Mexico Magazine Collection/Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Negative No. HP200720332


The young men photographed during military drills or waiting in line for food at Camp Luna near Las Vegas, N.M., had no idea that hundreds of them would die defending the Bataan Peninsula, walking in the Bataan Death March or during imprisonment by the Japanese under brutal conditions.


In August 1940, members of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment, which included more than 1,800 New Mexicans, had gathered to train for the last time on home soil. A year later, their units were deployed to the Philippines. The 10 black-and-white images in a new photo exhibit at the Jean Cocteau Cinema capture the soldiers’ blissful ignorance.
                                

“They’re human beings, not just cogs in the machine,” said Daniel Kosharek, the photo curator for the Palace of the Governors.

Kosharek said he has wanted to display these photos for a while to honor and recognize the young men, but until now he didn’t have the chance.

The exhibit will be on display at the Jean Cocteau until Oct. 12 in the cinema’s gallery at 418 Montezuma Ave. It will be open to the public from 1 to 8 p.m. daily. The images by an unnamed photographer are from the New Mexico Magazine Collection at the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives.

Kosharek said the photos were part of a series that published in a 1940 edition of New Mexico Magazine.

Many of the 1,816 New Mexicans in the regiment were fluent in Spanish, which led military officials to deploy them to the Philippines before the war to aid Filipino troops in defending the Bataan Peninsula.

When the peninsula fell to the Japanese in April 1942, many were captured and forced on the 65-mile Bataan Death March that ended in the deaths of 10,000 troops — 9,000 Filipinos and 1,000 Americans.

According to a news release, by the end of the war, 829 New Mexicans from the regiment were dead or missing. More than 800 died during the march or during their imprisonment. A third of the survivors perished within the year due to injuries or illness. Two survivors still live in Santa Fe: Richard Dalyand John Moseley.

But the photos in the exhibit show none of the horrors awaiting the young men. Instead, the men are photographed slogging through the monotony of military training at the rural, dusty Camp Luna.

One photo depicts a line of soldiers clad in wide-brimmed hats marching along what appears to be a dusty road. Rifles are slung over their shoulders, but the firearms look more like props than weapons. Another image depicts the soldiers-in-training firing heavy artillery. A plume of dark gray smoke wafts from one of the cannons, a harbinger of what awaits the men overseas.

One of the photos depicts several tall young men waiting in line at the mess hall. They carry what appear to be tin pans and ceramic plates. Dressed in civilian attire, they leer at the photographer with a combination of something between curiosity and annoyance. One wears an Albuquerque High School T-shirt adorned with the school’s mascot, a growling bulldog. The photos are specked with dust, but there’s no denying the innocence in the young men’s faces.

As part of the exhibit, the Jean Cocteau will screen the 2005 film The Great Raid at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The film was based on William Breuer’s The Great Raid on Cabanatuan and Hampton Sides’ Ghost Soldiers, both accounts of the rescue mission to save Bataan prisoners of war. Tickets are $7.

If you go

What: Photo exhibit titled Before Bataan: New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery

When: 1 to 8 p.m. through Oct. 12

Where: Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave.

On the Web

• For more information about the photo exhibit, visit nmhistorymuseum.org or jeancocteaucinema.com.