Powwow Portraits

Seattle commercial photographer Ben Marra and his wife, Linda, knew nothing about powwows when they attended their first one at a Seattle-area school gym in 1988.

But they knew breathtaking visual art when they saw it.

“The color of the regalia was just … stunning,” said Linda. “And when we learned that they made it all themselves, and worked on it as a family, that was very interesting.”

The Marras were there to shoot photos at the request of a Seattle printer who wanted to show off his color printing capabilities. Immediately, they realized they had stumbled onto a phenomenal color riot of feathers, beads, shells, fabric and weaving.

Yet they were just a bit intimidated. They never found the room they were supposed to use and had to hang their brown portrait backdrop between the lockers in a hallway.

And they were intensely conscious of the fact that they were outsiders to this tradition. They were grateful when 11 dancers agreed to pose for formal portraits.

Ben, behind the camera, was just hoping he could capture some of the beauty.

“I didn’t know what we had,” said Ben. “I didn’t get the film back until Monday. Then I went, ‘Wow.’ ”

The printer was wowed as well. Meanwhile, Ben, who grew up in Wallace, had just reached a life-changing realization: He didn’t need to travel to the mountains of Nepal (from which he had just returned) to find absolutely glorious portrait subjects.

It was the beginning of a labor of love for the Marras. “Faces From the Land: 20 Years of Powwow Tradition” (Abrams, $30), a gorgeous, coffee-table-style book, is the culmination of attending dozens of powwows with that same brown backdrop. It contains 150 of their best powwow portraits.

They traveled the entire West on the powwow trail, yet many of those powwows were here in the Plateau region, including Julyamsh in Post Falls (which returns next weekend to the Greyhound Park and Event Center).

So you’ll see dancers from the Yakama, Coeur d’Alene, San Poil, Kalispel, Nez Perce, Salish and Spokane tribes. But you’ll also see dancers from the Dine, Kiowa, Navajo, Sioux and Chippewa-Cree tribes – 87 tribes in total.

“The good thing is, they are traveling,” said Linda. “It’s very likely that you can encounter Eastern or Canadian tribal people.”

“Faces of the Land” contains a variety of styles and a variety of people, from children to elders.

The Marras also shoot action photos of dancers, which they use in their annual powwow calendars. You won’t find action shots in “Faces of the Land,” except in the front and end papers. Instead you’ll find sharp, precise portraits in which the viewer can examine every detail of feather, fabric and face.

“I set up the lights the same way every time, so I can take a picture from 1990 and put it next to one I took last month,” said Marra. “The lighting’s the same, the same backdrop, the same camera and the same film.”

The portraits have an air of quiet dignity about them, which belies the reality. The Marras usually have only five or 10 minutes to shoot a portrait between dances.

“It’s chaotic around me,” said Ben. “It’s not like we’re pristine and having a cup of herbal tea and taking an hour to light this person.”

Linda, meanwhile, asks all portrait subjects to provide their own words to accompany the photos. Often, the subjects talk about their tribe, their heritage and what the powwow means to them.

Here’s what one young dancer, Kevin Smartlowit (or Kwel-Kwel-Lish), a Yakama and Spokane, wrote for his portrait:

“My relatives are teaching me the ways of the powwow trail: How I am to carry myself on and off the dance floor. My father and mother encourage me in everything I want to do. My uncles and aunties praise me for my dancing and this makes me even try harder. I am told that the powwow trail is a good road to follow; you can’t go wrong if you dance with a prayer in your heart.”

No longer do the Marras feel like outsiders in the powwow culture. They say they “lead by giving,” and one way they do that is by giving every subject a free image for their own personal use.

“They’re both so talented and well-respected,” said Francis “Frenchy” SiJohn, the Coeur d’Alene Casino’s planning and development coordinator and a portrait subject in the book.

“I always felt we were pretty fortunate to be able to have somebody who can capture the culture, the tradition and the spirituality,” SiJohn said. “No other photographer has been able to capture it, not since Edward Curtis, who I would compare (Marra) to. These photos will live on way past our time.”