Edward S. Curtis from the Sparks Collection
Steiner Family Gallery
Nov. 20, 2010 – Feb. 15, 2011
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) sought to create a photographic document of American Indians. The photographs depicted, as Curtis wrote, "all features of Indian life and environment - the young and the old, with their habitations, industries, ceremonies, games, and everyday customs."
The 26 photogravures are part of Curtis’s The North American Indian, a series commissioned by J.P. Morgan in 1906. The goal of the project was to photograph and document Native American life, as many believed that the cultures were vanishing and that their traditions would soon be lost forever. When Curtis completed the project, he had taken over 40,000 photographs of 80 tribes and made over 10,000 sound recordings.
Curtis devoted his life to photography, and although he ended his formal education at sixth grade, he soon built his own camera and began working as an apprentice to a St. Paul, Minn., photographer. In 1898 he had a chance meeting with a group of conservationists who specialized in American Indian ethnography. Curtis accompanied the group on two photographic expeditions, after which he began his own research on Native American life and lore, including customs, language, dwellings, dress, food, and political and social structure.
Curtis’s work has been the center of controversy since its creation, as many of his images were staged and manipulated. Critics state that the work is not authentic and presents a stereotypical assumption of Native peoples. In spite of such condemnations, Curtis is widely praised as a gifted photographer, and his images as exquisite representations of history and humanity.
(Left): Edward S. Curtis," Múwŭ (“His Tooth”) - Sarsi" 1926, Photogravure. The North American Indian, Vol. 18, plate 619
Edward S. Curtis from the Sparks Collection is sponsored by El Pomar Foundation and The Gazette.
