Kelly O & Alex Garland: Three Days at Standing Rock. Opening Thursday, NOVEMBER 10, 2016. 6-9pm

Vermillion | November 5, 2016

KELLY O & ALEX GARLAND

THREE DAYS AT STANDING ROCK: A Fundraising Photography Show for the #NoDAPL Movement in North Dakota

OPENING THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2016

6-9PM

w/ music byPaul Cheyok’ten Wagner & Sacred Water

(Show runs through 12/3/16)

It started with a video. On September 3rd, 2016, journalist and author Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! documented a horrific scene in North Dakota—dogs with untrained handlers attacking peaceful protestors that were trying to protect sacred tribal burial sites from Dakota Access Pipeline bulldozers. DOGS. Dogs biting humans and horses. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How can this happen? Being a photographer, I could immediately see the importance of Goodman’s footage. Predictably, the Dakota Access Pipeline and their private security company, released a statement after the incident that included: “It is unfortunate that what has been portrayed as a peaceful protest by the opponents of the pipeline has now turned to violence and intimidation by a group of criminals and activists.” There were certainly criminals in that video, and wasn’t the Native Americans.

So what could I do? I saw on Facebook that photojournalist Alex Garland, who’s work I very much admire, was planning a trip to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. He had also watched Goodman’s video. Could our media skills possibly help the growing movement of Indigenous people trying to protect their land and their basic human right to have clean water? We hoped it could. In September, National media outlets seemed to be ignoring the #NoDAPL movement. Could we help?

On September 19th, with a rented mini-van and some donated food and clothing, we set out with some cameras. While nothing as violent as the incidents on September 3rd took place, we were grateful for this opportunity to stand, even for a short time, with Standing Rock—to see and hear what the water protectors were saying and what they were doing to fight for their rights. And the fight is far from over. Winter is coming, and water protectors are being arrested daily and at an alarming rate. We all should stand with Standing Rock. Proceeds from this show will be donated to the Red Warrior Camp, and also a portion to Indigenous cinematographer Rose Stiffarm, who lost her camera while documenting the continuing actions on the frontlines at Standing Rock. —KELLY O

https://www.gofundme.com/nodapl-cinematographer-needs-help-2vnxauc

Kelly O worked for The Stranger Newsweekly for 18 years. Her photographs have appeared on The Huffington Post and CBSNEWS.com, and in The New York Times, SPIN, Interview, BUST, Mojo, XLR8R, VICE, and Seattle’s City Arts Magazine. She also shown work at Vignettes, Ghost Gallery, The Hard L, Vermillion, and Greg Kucera Gallery. www.kelly–o.com

Alex Garland is a freelance photojournalist and has work published in nearly every media outlet in Seattle with regular publications in CapitolHillSeattle.com, The Seattle Weekly, The Seattle Globalist. More of Garland’s images from Standing Rock, North Dakota can be found in the September 28th, 2016 edition of Real Change. His images have also been published in Time, The Guardian, Examiner, Democracy Now!, and the NY Daily News. He has also shown work at the Jackson Junge Gallery in Chicago, Illinois. www.alexgarlandphotography.com

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