PENUMBRA Members Gallery | Isaiah winters
With This Land Is Your Land, Winters explores the history of the U.S. National Park system from his own perspective as a Black veteran. He successfully mixes found materials and landscape photographs, and invites us to question ideas of colonialism and western myths in our contemporary culture. His research, both personal and political, delves into the fetishization of the American outdoors and the ways this is expressed through signages, manifestos and promotional materials.
- Giada De Agostinis
This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land is a multimedia project that explores the history of the U.S. National Park system and the lands upon which they have been created. The work is an examination of recreation upon and the seizure of ancestral Indigenous lands from the perspective of a Black veteran. National Park Service data shows that only 2% of the visitors annually to our nation’s national parks identify as Black.
In search of healing and contemplation from my time in the U.S. Air Force, and after a traumatizing close-call from a fellow wingman, I began visiting Glacier National Park in northern Montana in hopes of escape. I’d answered the call to the wild that many naturalists, artists, and writers have answered before me. Beyond the alluring landscapes and solitude that were promised, I found that the influences of imperialism and the fetishization of the American outdoors were not unlike those I’d encountered during my time in service.
The project is named after a famous song by Woody Guthrie but many Americans are unaware that the song was altered from its original lyrics. Radio stations refused to play the original version for fear that the lyrics alluded to people that many White Americans didn’t believe “belonged”.
I continued traveling to Northern Montana over the next few years and to the nearby Blackfeet reservations. During these travels I started to see connections between American nationalism and myths surrounding manifest destiny. I also experienced a great sense of fear for my own safety when I ended up in extremely rural areas draped in confederate flags and racist paraphernalia.
Colonialist ideals, erasure and western myths continue to run rampant in contemporary times. The ways in which ideas can become imprinted within our culture drew me further into my photographic work and research.
TLIYL encourages viewers to parse through contrasting materials that paint this area of northern Montana as both intrinsically “American” and intrinsically stolen and Indigenous. Viewers will be encouraged to reconcile their own ideas and emotions regarding American mysticism and the colonialism that permeates all facets of our culture, even those as remote and “untouched” as rural Montana.
Artist Bio
Isaiah Winters’ photographic and experimental films merge the archival or found with the contemporary to comment on nostalgia and indexicality. Through recontextualizing visual media and advertisements he asks that viewer to acknowledge their own biases or learned truths. Popular culture and imagery are crucial to everyday understandings of the World around us. By taking this approach, Winters is able to create associations and assemblages that comment on the medium of photography. Isaiah received his BA in Sociology and MFA from Parsons School of Design in 2022. Returning to Parsons in 2020 was a decision made due to his desire to teach and make change at a pedagogical level. He is also an Air Force veteran with a background in linguistics and analytics. Winters’ work has been exhibited at Rotterdam Photo Festival, Parsons School of Design, Lincoln Center, Pingyao International Photo Festival and Photoville NYC. His work has also been featured in The New York Times, Baltimore Magazine, SNFCC, Parks Project and BmoreArt.
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