Synopses & Reviews
Amnesty International, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011. In recognition of this milestone, powerHouse Books presents
Dignity, a collection of photographs by Dana Gluckstein that celebrate the lives and cultures of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. This lavishly printed hardcover is filled with beautiful and inspiring images of this under-documented segment of the globe’s population. Whether photographing a Haitian healer or a San Bushmen chief, Gluckstein infuses each portrait with an essential human grace.
Across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, Indigenous Peoples are among the world’s most impoverished and victimized inhabitants. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, explained the urgent need to take action, “For too long the hopes and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples have been ignored; their lands have been taken; their cultures denigrated or directly attacked; their languages and customs suppressed; their wisdom and traditional knowledge overlooked; and their sustainable ways of developing natural resources dismissed. Some have even faced the threat of extinction. The answer to these grave threats must be to confront them without delay.” Photographed over a period of 25 years, the luscious black-and-white images in Dignity serve as an urgent plea on behalf of Indigenous Peoples.
Dignity will benefit from the heightened global exposure that Amnesty International will receive throughout the anniversary year. The book’s publication will coincide with the festivities and the photographs will tour internationally as an exhibition intended to support the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ratified by 144 nations in 2007. Dignity features a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate; an introduction by Iroquois Faithkeeper Oren R. Lyons; an epilogue by Amnesty International; and the full text of the U.N. Declaration. The Declaration is the most comprehensive global statement of the measures every government needs to enact to ensure “the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous Peoples of the world.” Through striking portraits, Gluckstein’s Dignity illuminates this vision.
Synopsis
DIGNITY, a collection of iconic photographs by Dana Gluckstein, honors Indigenous Peoples worldwide and celebrates the 50th Anniversary in 2011 of Amnesty International, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization. With over ninety exquisite black-and-white portraits spanning three decades, this richly printed coffee table gift book succeeds in distilling the universality of experience that links us all yet never sacrifices the dignity of the individual. Whether photographing a Haitian healer or a San Bushmen chief, Gluckstein infuses each portrait with an essential human grace.
“The Indigenous Peoples of the world have a gift to give that the world needs desperately, this reminder that we are made for harmony, for interdependence. If we are ever to prosper, it will only be together…. The work of Dana Gluckstein helps us to truly see, not just appearances, but essences, to see as God sees us, not just the physical form, but also the luminous soul that shines through us.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu, DIGNITY
DIGNITY’S power, artistry, and impassioned call to action make it a historic book in support of Indigenous Peoples who are among the world’s most impoverished and oppressed inhabitants. The inspirational text is intended to give a fuller awareness of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2007 by 144 countries. The declaration is the most comprehensive global statement of the measures every government needs to enact to ensure the survival, dignity, and well-being of the Indigenous Peoples of the world. DIGNITY includes the full text of the declaration. Gluckstein’s striking portraits illuminate this vision.
“The dispassionate remove common to most modern portraits is all but absent in these images; in its stead is a passionate complicity between artist and sitter that allows each subject to be memorialized with both beauty and grace.” —The late Robert A. Sobieszek, Curator, Department of Photography, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
About the Author
Dana Gluckstein has photographed iconic figures including Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Muhammad Ali, and produced award-winning advertising campaigns for clients such as Apple and Toyota. Her portraits of Indigenous Peoples are held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Gluckstein graduated from Stanford University, where she first fell in love with light and realized the power of images to shape consciousness. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent resistance to apartheid. As an Anglican priest, he served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and Archbishop of Cape Town. In 1995, President Mandela appointed him chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission where he brought to light the atrocities of apartheid. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor. He now serves as Chair of The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders working to support peace and address causes of human suffering.
Faithkeeper Oren R. Lyons, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, co-founded the Working Group on Indigenous Populations for the United Nations in 1982, and helped develop the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. As a revered Native American elder and scholar, he has sat on the Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations in New York since 1967 and taught Native American studies for 37 years as a Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at New York State University at Buffalo. He is guided by the Iroquois democratic principles of governance by the people, which requires decision-making on behalf of the “seventh generation coming.”