“The paradox of otherness is at the core of Maria Sturm’s ‘You Don’t Look Native to Me’. Her subjects belong to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the largest tribe in the region with around 55,000 members, with their name taken from the Lumber River of Robeson County. Starting in 2011, Sturm spent time photographing their daily lives. It opened up questions about visibility, identity and stereotype in the US, where Native Americans are romanticised yet often dismissed. Many tribes remain officially unrecognised, though the sense of identity within the communities is very strong.”
Charlotte Jansen — British Journal of Photography
