Photographer turned lens on injustices against Native Americans
An Arizona man celebrated for the humanity that was showcased in his photographs of people across the Colorado Plateau and the world has died.
John Running died
Sunday of complications from a brain tumour at his Flagstaff home, said his daughter, Raechel Running. He was 77.
His love of people, places and their cultures took him down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, to Mexico to photograph the Tarahumara and across the U.S. to highlight what he saw as injustices against Native Americans. He photographed children near the sea in Trinidad and honoured another photographer with pictures of farmers, fishermen, homemakers and children in Scotland.
Running briefly aspired to be a geologist before pawning a 12-gauge shotgun his father gave him on his 12th birthday to buy a camera while working in the New Mexico oil fields. He honed photography while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, developing photos under the cover of a blanket in his bunk. He analyzed lunar images with the U.S. Geological Survey, produced training films for astronauts and in 1967, won a photography contest in Flagstaff, where he had moved with his first wife, Helen. The two met while Running was stationed in Trinidad and had two children - Raechel and John Paul.
Throughout decades, Running mentored aspiring photographers at his downtown Flagstaff studio, which closed a few years ago. He was known for intimate portraits of Navajos and Hopis who were displaced from each other’s land in one of the largest relocation efforts in U.S. history. He saw a similar story line in the IsraelPalestinian conflict and travelled there with Sue Bennett, a photographer who became his romantic partner, to document people’s lives.
Running’s photos also became album covers for Canyon Records, an independent label specializing in Native American music. Owner Robert Doyle said Running was the only photographer he would hire for more than 15 years because he was confident Running understood tribal culture and reservation life.