I Refuse to be Invisible presents three major bodies of photographic work by artist Jeff Thomas: The Bear Portraits, Indians on Tour and Strong Hearts: Powwow Portraits. Developed over the course of four decades, these photographic suites explore and recontextualize the complex dialogue between historical and contemporary representations of Indigenous identity in photography, while simultaneously investigating the absence of images produced by Indigenous people.

Addressing his personal experiences growing up in urban environments where access to his own Indigenous history was limited, Thomas aims to make these histories accessible and empowering through images that assert Indigenous agency and self-determination in sites where it is absent. He reflects on the inception of this process, where “[the] first Bear portrait, Culture Revolution, set in motion a new way of looking at the city and, like the graffiti, my revolution was against the invisible urban Iroquois presence.”  

Working through an anthropological lens, Indians on Tour points to the problematic, stereotypical representations of Indigeneity as monuments and statues, now being eradicated and removed from cities. The series acts as an important historical record of their presence. The Bear Portraits explores the relationship between father and son, and the loss of male role models. In the series, Thomas’ son, Bear, is a marker of Indian-ness in sites where it did not previously exist. In Strong Hearts: Powwow Portraits, Thomas reverses the anthropological gaze, documenting the strength and evolution of male traditional powwow dancers.

For over forty years, these critical concerns have been at the heart of Thomas’ practice, and his work is internationally recognized for its contributions to the process of decolonization.

Jeff Thomas (b.1956) identifies as urban Iroquois (Haudenosaunee). Born in the city of Buffalo, New York, Thomas currently works and lives in Ottawa, Ontario. Thomas’ parents and grandparents were born on the Six Nations of The Grand River Territory and left the reserve in the 1940s to find work in Buffalo. 

Thomas is a photographer, curator, and cultural theorist. Nationally recognized for ground-breaking scholarship and innovative curatorial practice, he has been involved in major projects at such prominent cultural institutions in Canada as the Canadian Museum of History, the Woodlands Cultural Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and Library and Archives Canada.

His artistic career began in 1979 following a life changing car accident that left him unable to work. Thomas turned to an interest in photography to begin a new life and focus on confronting photo-based stereotypes of Indigenous people. Thomas asserts, “I’ve always felt that photography can be used to heal the Indigenous experience, because we come from a colonial history of erasure, and the camera really became my battleground in that sense.” Thomas was greatly influenced by the work of American photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868 – 1952), whose seminal work The North American Indian created a point of tension that propelled Thomas’ photography.

Thomas was the subject of a documentary film by Ali Kazimi entitled Shooting Indians: A Journey with Jeffrey Thomas in 1997. The following year he received the Canada Council for the Arts Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography. In 2003, he became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and, in 2019, was recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.