Across

Opens Saturday, May 17

This spring, the Fort Pitt Museum will open Across, a powerful new exhibition featuring the photography of Seneca artist DJ Huff.

The exhibit invites visitors to experience contemporary American Indian identity through Huff’s lens – offering a moving and personal reflection on Native life, memory, and presence. Huff, a member of the Seneca Nation from the Cattaraugus Reservation in New York, has long been a valued contributor to the Fort Pitt Museum as a cultural educator and historical interpreter.

Across complements the museum’s current marquee exhibition, Homelands: Native Nations of Allegheny, which explores the enduring histories and vibrant cultures of the Native nations who once called Western Pa. home. Several items loaned by Huff are featured in Homelands, and his photographs in Across build on these stories, effectively blending the past and present.

About The Artist

DJ Huff is a photographer, historian, and cultural preservationist from the Cattaraugus Reservation in western New York. His work explores themes of isolation, belonging, family ties, and collective and individual identity. In Across, Huff strives to identify what is meaningful about the experience of being human. The collection features people and landscapes from New York and Pittsburgh.

Huff’s work reflects his instinct to capture unexpected details; unconventional angles and strategic manipulation of color bring a new curiosity to familiar scenes. The striking emotion captured in Huff’s portraiture is undoubtedly a result of his ability to connect with his subjects and to elicit their honest, unposed experiences.

Huff plans to combine his talents as photographer and cultural preservationist to explore the creativity and artistic talent displayed in Native street art and graffiti. In addition to his work in photography and history, Huff is an accomplished musician, dog handler, avid traveler, and a veteran of the Afghanistan War.