L’Enfant Sauvage presents the exhibition To The Shadows by Simon Vansteenwinckel, a visual documentary essay on the Lakota rides.
Every year, in December, in North and South Dakota, members of the Lakota tribes (Sioux) gather to undertake a 450 km horseback ride over 15 days, in temperatures that can drop to -20°C. They follow in the footsteps of Chief Big Foot’s tribe, whose 300 members, mainly women and children, were massacred at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890.
Today, the Lakota live on reservations in more than precarious conditions, kept dependent by the American government. Confined to an unforgiving territory in the middle of one of the world’s greatest powers, their standard of living is comparable to that of the third world. Violence, drugs, alcohol, unemployment the life expectancy of men on the reservations is 45 years. In 2025, some families still did not have sanitation or access to running water.
And that is exactly what the international media usually shows of Native American reservations in the United States: a caricature of poverty. Whereas their power of resilience is immense, the strength of their spirituality intact, and their pride undefeated; a people that has suffered the worst abominations in history, yet continues to live and move forward, united and strong.
This is what the series attempts to show through this horse ride (Omaka Tokatakiya / Future Generations Ride), where, for two weeks, elders look after the young, take them out of their daily routine, teach them to ride, to be kind to themselves, but also bring them into contact with the soul and the history of their nation.
As they say, it is not a stroll but a spiritual ride.
Born in 1978 in Belgium, Simon Vansteenwinckel is a photographer, graphic designer, and professor at ESA St-Luc in Brussels.
He produces documentary projects, choosing the contrasted and grainy rendering of black-and-white analog film. Through his work, Simon Vansteenwinckel plays a significant role in the vitality of the Brussels photography scene.
His subjects are varied, ranging from an initiatory journey with his family in Chile, which gave rise to the book Nosotros (Editions Yellow Now, 2018), to Platteland (Editions Home Frit’ Home, 2019), a visual account of his wanderings in Belgium, and Wuhan Radiography (Editions Light Motiv, 2022), an X-ray of that Chinese city through the mediation of screens, etc.
His work has been exhibited in numerous countries (Belgium, France, Morocco, Japan, the United States, Argentina, Chile, etc.).
He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine Halogénure (a review of alternative and random photography) for many years.
Finally, Simon Vansteenwinckel is the co-founder of Editions Le Mulet, an independent publishing house specializing in photography books.
The book « Aux Ombres » by Simon Vansteenwinckel, published by Éditions Lamaindonne, is the winner of the Prix Nadar 2025.
Simon Vansteenwinckel : Aux Ombres
Until May 24, 2026
L’Enfant Sauvage
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