In Place.

Photographs and text by Fazal Sheikh.

Fazal Sheikh, 2024. 128 pp., 69 color photographs, 11x14¾".

In the early days of his project, Exposure, which examines the evidence of industrialized mineral extraction on the terrain of the American Southwest, the artist Fazal Sheikh became aware of the threat posed by the Trump administration to the sacred Native American lands surrounding the Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. In 2017, his first year in office, President Trump ordered an 85 percent reduction in the size of Bears Ears from 1.35 million acres to 201,397 acres, thus opening this protected area to potential exploitation by mining, fracking and natural gas which had already destroyed much of the region’s natural landscape. That year, through his friendship with the writer and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams, Sheikh was introduced to the members of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a coalition of the Hopi, Navajo, Ouray Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Zuni tribes, formed to fight the policy and maintain their native lands. They invited Sheikh to join them as artist-in-residence, and between 2017 and 2022 he photographed the region and the people, working with the tribal communities and their elders, among them Jonah Yellowman (Diné), Spiritual Advisor to Utah Diné Bikéyah and one of its founding members. In October 2021, President Biden restored protection for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments, part of a pledge to conserve what remains of the natural landscape and those areas sacred to tribal communities.

In Place, a small volume of meditative images, is an expression of Sheikh’s respect for these indigenous people and the territories they defend. As a companion to the Exposure project, it serves as a reminder of the natural beauty of the landscape which, thus far, has escaped the incursion of mining and drilling companies. A small book which fits easily into the hands, In Place is intended as an object of contemplation, a chance to study the natural landscape of the Bears Ears region, untouched by industrial development. In contrast to Sheikh’s other works documenting the destruction of so much of the Southwest, it serves as a book of consolation – a chance to consider what we have lost, and the importance of protecting what we have left.

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Cat# ZK620H Hardbound $60.00 (9798218474256)
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