Miyelo [Paperback]

Viggo 3=mortensen (Author), Viggo Mortensen (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004

In March 2003, Viggo Mortensen explored the town of Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, the site of a tragic massacre that occurred December 29, 1890. There he photographed a traditional Lakota Ghost Dance, and the resulting images re-create the dance that was originally performed by members of Chief Big Foot's band. Treating this sacred rite as both delirious remembrance and ephemeral dream, Miyelo includes literary and historical documentation that examines the Ghost Dance's origins.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Perceval Press (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974707848
• ISBN-13: 978-0974707846
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,489,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghostly dance, July 28, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Miyelo (Paperback)

One of the many talents of artist Viggo Mortensen has is to somehow photograph anything at all, and give it an aura of mystery. If the subject is already interesting, then Mortensen's photographs are outright fascinating. Mortensen's "Miyelo" is a photography book that is more than just a book, but an experience.

"Miyelo" is a collection of photographs focusing on the Lakota Ghost Dance, a recreation of a dance first performed in South Dakota in the late 1800s. Along with these photographs are more items related to the Ghost Dance -- Mortensen's own words, essays by experts of all stripes, chants, and quotations from everybody from Mark Twain to Crazy Horse to Lao-Tze.

"Miyelo" is one of those books that leaves you a bit dizzy after you've finished it. Mortensen shot the photographs for this book while filming the movie "Hildago" in the California desert. The result is surreal but extremely effective, almost like a vision of the past.

Mortensen's photography is never more entrancing than it is here. Just about every photo is shimmering and blurred, like a hallucination or a mirage. It gives the entire book the quality of a dream set on paper. "Miyelo 15" features a Lakota man standing in front of a shimmering desert landscape, while "Miyelo 5" shows only a series of transparent figures that seem to be moving. Living up to the name of the dance, these people look like ghosts.

Accompanying the photographs are Mortensen's foreword (which reads almost like poetry): "After one of the dryest summers in memory, nearly all green had bled from the landscape, leaving cottonwood bark tatter and twig tip as grey as reflected dawn on the creek; pale as wrist scar, frost grass, clay cut bank and barely there clouds running for cover to the Black Hills."

But as wonderful as the essays and foreword are, it's Viggo Mortensen's dreamlike photography that makes this book truly unforgettable. Vibrant, hallucinatory and bittersweet, this is a keeper.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghostly dance, May 3, 2004

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miyelo (Hardcover)

One of the many talents of artist Viggo Mortensen has is to somehow photograph anything at all, and give it an aura of mystery. If the subject is already interesting, then Mortensen's photographs are outright fascinating. Mortensen's "Miyelo" is a photography book that is more than just a book, but an experience.

"Miyelo" is a collection of photographs focusing on the Lakota Ghost Dance, a recreation of a dance first performed in South Dakota in the late 1800s. Along with these photographs are more items related to the Ghost Dance -- Mortensen's own words, essays by experts of all stripes, chants, and quotations from everybody from Mark Twain to Crazy Horse to Lao-Tze.

"Miyelo" is one of those books that leaves you a bit dizzy after you've finished it. Mortensen shot the photographs for this book while filming the movie "Hildago" in the California desert. The result is surreal but extremely effective, almost like a vision of the past.

Mortensen's photography is never more entrancing than it is here. Just about every photo is shimmering and blurred, like a hallucination or a mirage. It gives the entire book the quality of a dream set on paper. "Miyelo 15" features a Lakota man standing in front of a shimmering desert landscape, while "Miyelo 5" shows only a series of transparent figures that seem to be moving. Living up to the name of the dance, these people look like ghosts.

Accompanying the photographs are Mortensen's foreword (which reads almost like poetry): "After one of the dryest summers in memory, nearly all green had bled from the landscape, leaving cottonwood bark tatter and twig tip as grey as reflected dawn on the creek; pale as wrist scar, frost grass, clay cut bank and barely there clouds running for cover to the Black Hills."

But as wonderful as the essays and foreword are, it's Viggo Mortensen's dreamlike photography that makes this book truly unforgettable. Vibrant, hallucinatory and bittersweet, this is a keeper.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Miyelo, March 7, 2005

By 

R. L. Hodges - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Miyelo (Paperback)

This book would be an excellent supplement to a historical study of the American Plains of the 1870's to the 1890's with its accompanying extensive 4 page biliographical references. It is a compilation of various writings and documents from various authors. The color plates are illusionary, ghostly and indistinct. I would not consider this book for leisure reading.