Native American Indian Rock Art as Fine Photography

Landscape photography is my passion. But, like most folks, I have varied interests. One of them is a fascination for Native American culture that I’ve had since I was a child. My mom grew up on a Kentucky farm and I remember bedtime stories when she reminisced about walking behind her father’s tractor looking for arrowheads that were uncovered as he plowed.

I’ve spent a lot of time photographing in the American Southwest during the past couple decades. At first, I’d photograph Rock Art if I happened across it but over time my interest grew and I came to appreciate that the whole region was a “wilderness Louvre” (a phrase coined by National Geographic).  

Over time, I compiled quite a portfolio of Rock Art shots. But when I reviewed the images, I noticed that although they were technically fine…something was missing. I had photographed and processed them in an accurate, documentary style but these weren’t sterile, ancient artifacts. They were art, and I needed to portray them as such.

Since then I’ve reprocessed these far more aggressively than I would normally to better showcase their unique grace and inherent beauty. The result is a set of images (see my entire Rock Art Portfolio here) that reflect the emotion this art inspires far better than my original ‘technically accurate’ photographs.

“Sinbad” is a pictograph, which means it was painted on rock (as opposed to petroglyphs which were cut or ‘pecked’ into the rock). Over the millenia, sun, wind, and rain eventually weather and fade the pigment in pictographs, so examples that look nearly new like Sinbad are rare.

Restoring the Past

Some pictographs are so faded that even ‘enthusiastic’ processing comes up short. In those cases I use a specialized software called D-Stretch.

D-Stretch uses decorrelation stretch, which NASA originally developed to improve remote sensing images of Mars. The program analyzes the image and then shifts the color to highlight faded designs and patterns by providing more contrast within the image. The results can be astounding.

An example is shown to the left. The top shot is right out of the camera. The middle one has been processed with D-Stretch software to emphasize faded pigments. The last image is a combination of Photoshop and DStretch. This involves a lot of layers, blending, and color manipulation but the final result ‘looks right’…to my eyes at least.

Although many pictographs are far less faded than this one, I find that D-Stretch, when used subtlety, can appreciably enhance the result.

Rock Art Styles

There are a number of different styles of rock art. My favorite is Barrier Canyon, which is among the oldest examples of art in the Americas (approx. 2,000 years old). Often they are larger than life size with anthropomorphic (manlike) forms. With long tapered bodies, hollow ‘bug-eyes’ and antennas they are the embodiment of our image of aliens…which has given rise to a lot of silly “ancient aliens” theories.

If you would like to read more about the Barrier Canyon style and the people who created it, check out this article.

A more recent style is known as Fremont. These are usually petroglyphs and commonly feature triangular-shaped human torsos that often display intricate depictions of earrings, necklaces, headgear and elaborate clothing.

Depictions of animals are often represented as well, sometimes with what seems to be a sense of whimsy.

Pictographs depicting hands are as simple as it gets but I find them particularly touching. Maybe because of how easily I can imagine holding up my own hand and painting around it.

One of my favorite pictographs is known as the Circle of Friends near Escalante Utah.

Some Rock Art attracts controversy, which usually just serves to perk my interest even more:

Sometimes it is impactful to step back and see the art in context, like this image:

Another example is this monumental rock art portrait known as the Moki (Moqui) Queen or the Cleopatra Panel. By any name, it is impressive, stately, and commanding.

But often I want to zoom in tight to capture the abundant and fascinating details:

Two pictographs from the famous Buckhorn Wash Panel. Unfortunately it suffered tons of vandalism over the centuries since it is adjacent to a highly traveled pass. Even an impressive restoration in 1996 was unable to restore its full glory. I’ve used D-Stretch and Photoshop work to eliminate the remaining graffiti ‘gouges’ and revive faded colors to help me better imagine what the original artist created.

Mother nature was the greatest threat to rock art for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Human vandalism is now the greatest enemy.

I find it infuriating to stand before artwork that survived unscathed for millennia but was recently defaced by some moron. Perhaps our photographs will be the only way for future generations to enjoy these treasures.

In the meantime, I plan to continue seeking out and photographing these ancient artworks. Maybe because they inspire a sense of awe…

Or maybe for no other reason than some of them just excite my imagination and make me smile!

Cheers!
Jeff

PS: I have an entire portfolio of my favorite Rock Art images that you can enjoy by clicking here.

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