Shana Nys Dambrot A deceptively simple image of a timeless mythological and literary image -- the raven -- that transcends cultures, genres, myths, dreams, and some even say the threshold of life and death. From Poe to indigenous spiritualism, Lord of the Rings to van Gogh, this bird has an iconic role to play. Beyond that, the aesthetic, material and technical choices the artist makes infuse this particular iteration with a regal or heroic sense of scale; a perception of heft, weight of the creature, its power; and a vintage quality of the photographic object that speaks to ancestral tales, but with a crispness and perfect resolution that speaks to the present. Straight up, this is the one image I just could not stop thinking about from the moment I saw it.
The raven is a significant figure in most Native American cultures. It is seen as the creator of light and as a trickster figure. As the maker of light, the raven symbolizes the ultimate creator of all things that existed before the beginning