Chris Felver

celebrating the release of Tending the Fire: Native Voices and Portraits

Photographs by Christopher Felver; Foreword by Simon J. Ortiz; Introduction by Linda Hogan

published by Universtiy of New Mexico

Christopher Felver’s Tending the Fire celebrates the poets and writers who represent the wide range of Native American voices in literature today. In these commanding portraits, Felver’s distinctive visual signature and unobtrusive presence capture each artist’s strength, integrity, and character. Accompanying each portrait is a handwritten poem or prose piece that helps reveal the origin of the poet’s language and legends. As the individuals share their unique voices, Tending the Fire introduces us to the diversity and complexity of Native culture through the authors’ generous and passionate stories.

Felver’s insightful epilogue reminds us that “Native Americans today are as modern as the Space Age, and each in their own way carries forth the cultural heritage ‘from whence they came.’ Their abiding legacy as the first people of this continent has found its voice in the hard-won wisdom of their art and activism. Let’s learn from this belated opportunity to look and listen to these Native voices.”

Christopher Felver’s previous books include American Jukebox: A Photographic Journey, The Importance of Being, The Late Great Allen Ginsberg: A Photo Biography, The Poet Exposed, and Ferlinghetti Portrait. His photographs are distributed worldwide and collected by museums and university libraries. They have been featured in international exhibitions, including the Centre Pompidou, London’s National Theatre, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, and MOCA.