Ash Ponders in Smithsonian Magazine for Apache Lands

THE CASE OF THE AUTOGRAPHED CORPSE

While the article was about an early 20th century Apache mystic, the photo editor asked me to make a visual love letter to Apacheria, specifically the land as John Silas might have known it. I called all my friends, had them call all their uncles, and did my best to learn as much as I could about life on the Apache reservations in 1920-1933.

I spent the better part of 10 days in research and photography, visiting nearly all parts of Western Apacheria. Though I did my very best to avoid contact with my friends or anyone else due to the pandemic. They didn’t run it, but I made my very first images of a bald eagle which alit next to me as I was photographing some free-range cows. I don’t know the meaning in that happening, but it feels meaningful, right? I made a collage of images from this assignment on my Instagram.

Phoenix based; available for work in Latin America and the US Southwest.
+14808334800
ashponders@gmail.com
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