Session 10 summary
A journey to the Ancestors
Photography has given Alex King a little bit of drive to see through herself and find something that would allow her to live more feasibly. In Rarotonga, Cook Islands, the indigenous language is prioritized for the children to learn and help stay connected to their culture. Growing up she experienced her disconnection to her community as she experienced a mixed life but photography helped her to reconnect to her culture and community and brought her closer to the environment and community. This love for her culture inspired her photography and expressing her pride of who she is and from where she comes from. She says that With photography her aim is to bring a social change, which is comprised of taking people on a visual journey and have a deep and lasting impact on the viewers and bring them compassion, understanding and healing and to basically correct the narratives and people perspectives created by the westernized history of the indigenous community. She tries to highlight in her images all parts of indigenous people and culture, the resilience and the challenges of colonialism. She tries to focus on women empowerment in Polynesian women. She believes that photography should bring compassion and healing, she wishes to bring these to her people. Show the giving essence of the culture and the resilience and challenges our people have faced. When talking about her style of photography she says that her images are dark and moody which represents her emotions and feelings. It also symbolizes the fact that there are dark places on earth and the light in the images represents hope and something beautiful and amazing is going to come. One of her works consists of documentation of Mike Tavioni, a master carver who is an important person in her community because he is someone who holds a lot of knowledge about their culture and community. She also talks about her documenting the palm oil factories in Indonesia and how they impacted indigenous communities and the environment. She also likes to take drone shots, one of which is of an island Mangaia which has an intriguing landscape.
She also talks about history and documenting indigenous communities stating that, throughout history the indigenous people have been undervalued and often exploited. Colonialism has a great effect on the feeling of belonging somewhere, but it has also affected the indigenous lifestyle. This has created a generational trauma. She says that their history is seen through a westernized perspective and that history is causing harm to the indigenous communities and creates narratives about the communities which are most likely false or misinformation but considered true by the outside world. This leads to the importance of representing the indigenous community as they are. As one can only understand an indigenous community if they have lived an indigenous life. She states that art and story-telling in an indigenous communities are a part of who they are. While documenting indigenous communities first one should understand themselves- their purpose in telling the community’s story. They should carefully think whether or not it is their story to tell? Documentation through photography is important as it allows viewer to gain an insight to the reality of the story. These documentations and records should all be done by indigenous people/artist because the history has a very westernized perspective and contains stories not told by us, the indigenous communities. Also the indigenous narrative is sensitive and one must be careful while telling these stories. By doing so the indigenous communities get a sense of getting their power back, they feel their value again, feel like they are being heard/ listened to. Listening is a crcial part of documentation as one won’t be able to understand what they are telling if they do not listen properly and they must keep an open mind and a conscious effort to help. If it is not genuine they we are not really helping them. It is also important to question what system we are living in? How they serve us as a community/society? What parts of it our culture and traditions have disappeared and what do we want to revive?
Her photography journey has been a long one and in this journey she has learned more about herself than anything else. She says that Photography is a powerful tool which has helped her find a way to have connections and contacts around the world. She advises young artists that when one is passionate about something then many opportunities open up and one should take failure as a massive part of success. It is also quite helpful if one writes down their values and reflect on them.
About the Speaker
Alex King
Photographer
Rarotonga
The Cook Islands
www.alexkingphotographer.com
Alex King is a Polynesian and Maori photographer who has carved a niche for herself is an indigenous photographer through photo documentary, storytelling and digital art, trying to make an impact on her audience and viewers, by challenging the world view on indigenous communities and lifestyles. Alex was born in Opotiki, Aotearoa(New Zealand) from where her mother’s family and tribe descend, Whakatohea, Ngati Porou and Tuhoe. She was raised in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, where her father comes from. Her families descend from both the islands of Mangaia and Rarotonga. She realised that her journey through photography in the last 10 years has brought her to a place where she understands how powerful her imagery can change a person’s perspective, and impact the world around her. She specialises in portrait photography, photo documentary, storytelling, and wedding photography. She has photographed over 200 weddings and hundreds of portrait sessions with clients from around the world. In the past 2 and half years however through photo documentary, storytelling and digital art. She landed in a niche market, as an indigenous photographer, trying to make an impact on her audience and viewers and challenge the world view on her communities and their lifestyles. She learned and unlearned many things through her journey as a single mother, running a successful photography business, and reconnecting with her roots. The way she likes to photograph and tell stories through her images is a representation of the way she see the world around her. Having gone through challenges in the past decade, she is extremely passionate about social justice, her Whenua (land), her Moana (ocean) and the preservation of her environment. Over time her hope is that her work will strike the right people in order to tell their stories for future generations, to document the beautiful and raw parts of their lives, and to bring healing to anyone who may need it.
