Esquimau avec sa tente 1857 - 1861

Isaac Israel Hayes made this stereograph of an Inuk man and his tent, probably in the 1860s, using a camera and photographic printing techniques. These materials were far from traditional art materials, but were increasingly being used in the 19th century for documentation and, of course, portraiture. The man’s face is clearly presented, and the image is focused and intimate, with a stark texture due to the black and white printing. We see the man sitting near a tent, constructed of what appears to be stretched animal skins, held taught by wooden poles. The labour involved in surviving this landscape is palpable – it appears in the stitching together of the tent, the weathering of the materials, and the posture of the figure. Hayes was an explorer, interested in bringing back images of the Arctic. It is important to think about this photograph not only as an aesthetic object, but as a document of a particular moment in history, and of the relationship between Western culture and Indigenous communities.