Local freelance photographer Jeff Ferguson’s work is on display at Peninsula College in Forks through March 30. The exhibit consists of 16 spectacular color photographs on large format canvas, taken at various Inland Northwest Pow Wows over the past three years.
Ferguson’s idea was to display imagery that highlights the colorful and intricately detailed, handmade regalia worn by Native American dancers at Native celebrations throughout the Inland Northwest. Much of the regalia consists of various materials including beadwork, porcupine quillwork, buckskin, eagle feathers, ribbons, seashells and bells. Some of the regalia utilizes authentic traditional techniques that require various external and internal parts of animals like beavers, deer, elk, hawks and many others indigenous to the area.
Although some of the regalia is just for show, much of it is functional for traditional everyday life, celebrations and ceremonies.
This exhibit is made possible by the Potlatch Fund, a community foundation and leadership development organization dedicated to inspiring the Native tradition of giving and expanding philanthropy within Tribal Nations and Native communities of the Northwest.
Ferguson, owner of J. Ferguson Photography, was born in Pullman, raised in Spokane and resides in Beaver. He has lived, worked and traveled extensively throughout the United States.
He is a Spokane Tribal member who holds an associate degree in photography from Spokane Falls Community College and bachelor’s degree in communications from Whitworth University. He finds much of his inspiration from both the urban and rural areas of the Inland Northwest and his Native heritage, but also from great photographers such as Edward Curtis, Lewis Hine, Richard Avedon, Mary Ellen Mark, Ansel Adams and Joel Grimes, as well as great visual artists such as Warhol, Monet, Picasso, and Kandinsky. Although most of his work is commercial, editorial, portraiture and sports photography, his passions lie in documentary video, nature and landscape photography and cultural preservation.
The community is invited to attend a reception with Ferguson Monday, from 6:30-8 p.m. March 16.
For more information, contact Deborah Scannell, site coordinator at Peninsula College at Forks, at dscannell@pencol.edu or 360-417-6435.
