- Term
A. Frank Randall
- Alternate Term
Randall, A. Frank
A.F. Randall
Randall, A.F.?
- Occupation/Role
photographer
- Date
March 2, 1854 – March 4, 1916
- Remarks
Randall belonged to a new school of American ethnographic photographers who sought to capture the "authentic" Indian. Dressed not in ceremonial finery but their everyday attire, his subjects were placed virtually in situ: outdoors, or in studio settings created to mimic their "natural environment". Randall is best remembered for a series of portraits he made between 1882 and 1884 of the Western Apache (some say in partnership with Ben Wittick, though Wittick was probably nothing more than an agent-backer). What is remarkable about these images, apart from their high artistic quality, is that they were executed during the Apache's long guerilla war with the United States government, which had sought unsuccessfully for two decades to confine the tribe to reservations. Indeed, many of Randall's subjects - notably Geronimo, Nana, Naiche, Got-chi-eh - were on the warpath when they agreed to sit for his camera. Frequently pirated, Randall's priceless work is often falsely credited to other photographers, and rarely surfaces in prints from original negatives with appropriate attribution. Between 1883-1887, A. Frank Randall travelled on expeditions around Arizona and New Mexico photographing various Apache tribes, including the Chiricahua, Warm Springs, Mescalero, and Jicarilla Apaches. He accompanied General George Crook as a newspaper correspondent and photographer in the campaign to capture Apache Indians in Mexico.