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Dugan aguilar maidu northern paiute achomawi
Robert Dugan Aguilar is a Native American photographer whose work has been exhibited by major museums. He is "among the first Native photographers to document Native life in Yosemite and California through his own vision."
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Background
Born in 1947, Aguilar lived in Susanville, California as a youth. He does not usually use his first name and is known as Dugan Aguilar. His mother's ancestors were Maidu from the Green River Rancheria, and from the Pit River Tribe living on Hat Creek. His father is Northern Paiute from the Walker River Indian Reservation in Nevada. He also has some Irish ancestry, and prefers the name Dugan because it means "of dark complexion" in Gaelic.
He is a nephew of Leonard Lowry, one of the most decorated Native American war heroes of the U.S. military. Lowry joined the United States Army in 1940, served in Australia, New Guinea, the Philippines and Japan during and after World War II. He won the Distinguished Service Cross in Korea in 1950, and retired after 27 years as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Aguilar served in the Vietnam War for 13 months. The Maidu made him a warrior when he returned, and gave him a beaded golden eagle feather award. His mother made his uniform into a quilt.
Aguilar graduated from California State University Fresno in 1973. He studied photography at the graduate level at University of California Santa Cruz, University of California Davis, and University of Nevada, Reno.
Aguilar has been heavily influenced by the photography of Ansel Adams. He first saw photos by Adams at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco in 1973, and decided to learn how to print negatives in a similar way. He took a workshop with Ansel Adams in 1978, and decided to concentrate his career on documenting the Native Americans of California and Nevada. He has used techniques advocated by Adams such as previsualization and use of red filters to create a dark sky.
According to Indian art expert Brian Bibby, "Aguilar's work in informed by familiarity and affiliation with his subject."
Exhibitions
Books
Dugan Aguilar's photographs have been published in the following books: