WEBVTT

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Thanks, Laura.

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Only have a few
words to say, first

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that it was an honor to
have my images accompany

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Laura's beautiful poems.

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I had hoped, when I started
taking these images starting

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back in the late '70s, that--

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well I felt they needed a voice.

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I mean, I hope that they
speak for themselves,

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but I also felt that to really
speak of this land required

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a voice that I didn't have, one
from someone who lived in it

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and in whom the spirit of
the people lived as well.

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So it was a wonderful thing that
I was able to meet with Laura

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and complete this work.

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I started photographing, as
I said, in the late 1970s.

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My wife and I spent a
couple of Summers teaching

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in what was then Navajo
Community College.

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It's now Diné College in Tsaile.

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And that was the
first time that I

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began to get a real sense
of what this land was about,

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at least from my
perspective, which

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is as an urban-born astronomer
with a research interest in how

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stars and planets form.

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So it was an interesting
placement of somebody,

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and I had to
inculcate an awful lot

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to even begin to
understand the land

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and also to make
connections with the people.

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So I hope that at
least you'll find

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that these images complement
words which would easily

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have stood on their own.

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I hope that they add something
to the story of Canyon de

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Chelly.

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Thanks.

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[APPLAUSE]

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