honorable mention
Robert Studzinski united states
title
A Battle at Standing Rock
My passion is putting a human face on the struggles of indigenous and endangered peoples through extemporaneous, in-the-field portraits. This is my attempt to provide a voice so their stories can be told and we can experience a bit of life otherwise unknown to us.
I was first inspired while exploring Nicaragua in the early 1980’s. There, I found a story not being told in the mainstream, people very willing to be photographed, the work saleable and a sense in the air that anything was possible. I was hooked.
I grew up in a blue collar, first generation, extended family in Cleveland, Ohio’s Slavic Village. I was fascinated with tales of peasant life and war in the Old Country. I was high school valedictorian and graduated Magna cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa key from Ohio University (BA,Geography 1970). I was a Kosciuszko Foundation Scholar in grad school but the need to support my family led to more prosaic work with the State of Ohio. I currently run a small photography business in Bexley, Ohio.
back to gallery
entry description
I spent a week last fall at Oceti Sakowin on the Army Corps of Engineer's land, adjoining the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. I camped with the Water Protectors, as the protestors of the Dakota Access Pipeline called themselves. They saw themselves as defenders of the sacred rights of the Sioux nations and the water we all need. I just missed the mass arrests and then the blizzards that followed but I saw a lot of action my first full day along the Cannonball River.about the photographer
I've spent over thirty five years, off and on, documenting the cultural past, alive in the present. I also spent some thirty years on the mean streets of Columbus, Ohio as a parole officer for juvenile felons. Both, anthropologies of a sort.My passion is putting a human face on the struggles of indigenous and endangered peoples through extemporaneous, in-the-field portraits. This is my attempt to provide a voice so their stories can be told and we can experience a bit of life otherwise unknown to us.
I was first inspired while exploring Nicaragua in the early 1980’s. There, I found a story not being told in the mainstream, people very willing to be photographed, the work saleable and a sense in the air that anything was possible. I was hooked.
I grew up in a blue collar, first generation, extended family in Cleveland, Ohio’s Slavic Village. I was fascinated with tales of peasant life and war in the Old Country. I was high school valedictorian and graduated Magna cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa key from Ohio University (BA,Geography 1970). I was a Kosciuszko Foundation Scholar in grad school but the need to support my family led to more prosaic work with the State of Ohio. I currently run a small photography business in Bexley, Ohio.
back to gallery
