'The Window'

Gallup, NM: The Studios of J.R. Willis, 1925. Silver gelatin photograph [18 cm x 28 cm] / [7" x 11"] Photographer's blind stamp at the lower left. In the original gilded frame with a Willis label on the reverse. View of Tségháhoodzání also known as Window Rock, which is the namesake of the Navajo Nation capital and Arizona town. Joseph Roy Willis (1876-1960) was a photographer and painter who in 1917, on his way to New York City via train, stopped in Laguna, NM, curious about the Hopi Snake Dance. This brief first experience in New Mexico spawned a lifelong interest. That same year, Willis moved to Gallup and bought the studio of Simon Schwemberger. He helped start the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial (an annual event ongoing since 1922) and is best known for his photographs of Indians and landscaped of the southwest.