A local photography workshop will bring in Native American dancers, a local wagon tours business, a nationally-recognized photographer and several photographers looking to add to their portfolios this Saturday.
Wyoming Camera Outfitters is hosting the workshop in partnership with Canon and one of Canon’s Explorers of Light (a term the company uses to denote especially prolific photographers who work with their products), Lynsey Weatherspoon. Weatherspoon, an Alabama native who now lives in Atlanta, will lead 16 people in photographing Indigenous dancers in low light around a fire.
The event will be held just off the Platte River, at one of Morris Carter’s campsites. Carter leads Historic Trails West, a company that offers wagon or horseback rides along the actual Oregon, California, Mormon or Pony Express trails, and he himself will be under Weatherspoon’s tutelage on Saturday.
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Chris Luse, who works at Wyoming Camera Outfitters, told the Star-Tribune that the dancers are coming from Riverton. “A friend of a friend” is helping to recruit and gather them, he said.
This will be Weatherspoon’s first time in Wyoming. While she wishes that she could stay for longer, she is excited to work with Indigenous communities and experience the Cowboy State. Weatherspoon, who is Black, works with Black communities to document the issues they face and the cultures within them.
“What’s so important about it is stepping outside of your comfort zone and being able to learn about communities that you may be aware of, but not necessarily know the rituals, the canon of their language, whatever else,” she said. “But I think it’s really important to step outside of what you do on a normal basis just to learn not only photography skills, but just more about other people outside our own group of folks.
“As far as being hands on and interacting with Indigenous communities, it doesn’t happen enough in my world.”
Indigenous communities use dance as a way to not only express themselves and their culture, but also to celebrate, pray and give thanks. Dances are often specific to certain regions and cultures.
Wyoming Camera Outfitters will not be taking a cut from this workshop, Luse said. Instead, all the money will go back to Indigenous people and to Carter, who said that he will be donating a portion to the National Historic Trails Center Foundation.
While this workshop is full, there are other workshops that Wyoming Camera Outfitters puts on throughout the year, Luse said. Last year, they did a alien-themed workshop at Hell’s Half Acre.
Follow religion and community reporter Jordan Smith on Twitter at @jordansmith_js
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