Portrait of Chantelle Keshaye Pahtayken & Shay Pahtayken, Plains Cree, Ryan RedCorn (born 1979)

Photographer, screenwriter, filmmaker, and University of Kansas alum Ryan RedCorn explains that he uses “a photographic strategy of undermining tropes Americans have about Indigenous people. The volume of color present is an intentional counterweight to the black and white photographs the American subconscious inherited from previous generations and textbooks.” RedCorn developed these large-scale photographs—this one is 10 feet tall—to honor modern-day Natives and their stories of strength and resilience. The grand scale and extraordinary quality of the photographs evoke visual sovereignty and self-expression. Most importantly for RedCorn, these works “reclaim large amounts of wall space on behalf of Indigenous peoples.”