Zig Jackson: The Journey of Rising Buffalo Reveals a Living, Breathing Representation of Indigenous Cultures

The exhibition Zig Jackson: The Journey of Rising Buffalo bridges the performative and observational practices of Zig Jackson, a photographer whose work is concerned with the everyday experience of Native American life and culture, with a focus on community, sovereignty, and respect for the land. The exhibition opens to the public at the George Eastman Museum on May 10 and will be on view in the museum's Project Gallery through November 9.

“The George Eastman Museum is proud to host Zig Jackson’s first solo exhibition to be held on the East Coast,” said Jamie M. Allen, Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Curator in the Department of Photography, who co-curated the exhibition along with Curatorial Associate Louis Chavez. “We are excited for visitors to learn about Jackson’s work and how his photographs have contributed to discourses about Native American history and visual representation. It has been a pleasure to work with him and his gallerist, Andrew Smith, on this process.”
 

Jackson’s photographic practice serves as a collection of memories and reflections as he traverses parts of North America, visiting friends and documenting public and private life on the reservations. Jackson’s images quietly contemplate social issues such as family structures, substance abuse, veteran’s issues, homelessness, and access to natural resources. Jackson exhibits a living, breathing representation of Indigenous cultures in urban and rural areas alike, with a subtle consideration for the impacts of displacement and marginalization experienced by these communities. His images are simultaneously playful and somber, attesting to the contradictions between the everyday joys and struggles of those he depicts in his work.

Curated by Jamie M. Allen and Louis Chavez, Department of Photography, with Zig Jackson and Andrew Smith.

Public Programs

• Curator Gallery tour of Zig Jackson: The Journey of Rising Buffalo
  Saturday, August 23 at 11:30 a.m. 
• In Conversation: Zig Jackson
  Wednesday, October 8 at 6 p.m.
   

Museum Admission

Museum admission is free for members, children (4 & under), SNAP and EBT cardholders and their families, and for active-duty military personnel and their families. A buy one, get one admission pass is available to be borrowed through the Monroe County Library System’s Very Important Places (V.I.P.) pass program. For complete ticket information, hours, and more visit eastman.org.
 

About Zig Jackson

Zig Jackson, also known as Rising Buffalo, is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation) and the first Native American photographer to receive a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography. Raised on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, Jackson was taken from his home at the age of eight and placed in St. Joseph’s Indian School in Chamberlain, South Dakota. He later graduated from Intermountain Indian School in Utah, where he first discovered his passion for photography and the universal issues facing Native Americans. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in education from Northeastern Oklahoma State University before studying at the University of New Mexico and teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe. He later pursued an advanced degree in photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, becoming the first Native American to receive an MFA in Photography from the institution. Jackson is a professor emeritus at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia.

About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 28,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. For more information, visit eastman.org.

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ATTN. Media: High-resolution images for Zig Jackson: The Journey of Rising Buffalo can be provided by request.