Thunder rolled across the prairie – and then there was silence. It
was probably more than 30 million American bison roaming the
plains of the Midwest. Nothing was more powerful in the prairie,
neither physically nor spiritually. It meant everything to the
American Indians. The bison was their life. With the arrival of
the European settlers massive slaughter began. Never before
had human beings killed so many animals in such a short space
of time. Almost the whole population was annihilated within
less than two decades. The (hi)story of the bison is a parable
about globalization and the interplay of technological progress,
capitalism, and a lack of understanding ecological contexts,
ideologies, and politics. What followed was an ecological,
economic, and social disaster. The whole country suffered. The
prairie vanished with the bison – and with it all the hope.Now
the bison returns. It is a journey into the past in order to gain a
future. And this is not nostalgia. The bison is a real existing and
socio-cultural phenomenon. It is a current political issue in the
dispute between cattle breeders and the bison lobby. These
archaic creatures are at the center of a symbiotic relationship
between animal and environment - and a human society of the
21st century. The bison is the matrix.
Buffalo Ballad is a visual search for the spirit and myth of this
American icon in the heart of the bison country, it is an homage
to the American soul. The photographers travelled through the
center of the bison country, from North and South Dakota,
Wyoming, Colorado, to Montana. Their magical black-and-white
photographs of the bison translate the vision into reality. There
must be places out there where archaic creatures may live
freely. Only a world in which this is possible is a world worth
living in.
