Lee Marmon

Any of you who followed my blog last summer got to deal with my name dropping nature when I wrote about some of the famous people I get to brush shoulders with all summer. Now, I know that academics aren't really famous, I mean, I don't even know these people until I meet them and they tell me exactly who they are and what they have accomplished; but tonight was a different experience. Anyone who knows Southwestern culture has probably heard of Lee Marmon, and if you haven't heard of him, you've seen his work. Lee Marmon, the father of the famous writer Leslie Marmon Silko (author of Storyteller, Ceremony, Yellow Woman) is a photographer. He was a free lance photographer and took many famous shots of Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Ronald Reagan, etc. But what he is most famous for are his portraits of Native peoples from Acoma and Laguna, and Zuni (all located in New Mexico).

So tonight he presented to us here a slide show of his favorite pictures and told stories like a pro. I loved every minute. I bought a poster of one of his most famous prints "American Moccasins" and he signed it. I've posted it below along with one of his other famous pictures "Eagle Dancers." I'm trying to post in smaller chunks so I don't have any long narratives like the last few. Anyway, just met a regular old guy (he's 80 something) and got to here some of the stories of his life. Pretty neat, sweet, man.