Research Project Edward S Curtis
Edward S Curtis
It is the perception of the photographer that has undermined or supported the photographic truth more than any digitally manipulated image. What one chooses to put within the confines of the frame, and, just as important, what one omits, determines what the photographer believes the truth is. Online resources such as Wikipedia, give the viewer, through video, immediacy to an event such as walking on the moon. While less dramatic, a visual representation of anything in the context of a book, newspaper, or magazine, give the viewer what they believe to be true if they weren’t there. A photographer’s life’s experiences as he or she grow up and older influences what one chooses to believe.
In the case of Edward S Curtis we have a history http://www.curtis-collection.com/curtis.html of his life. Curtis was the son of a preacher with an early interest in photography. To combat the stories and sketches of savagism, to preserve the “vanishing Indian, and to increase their presence, Curtis pursued his photography in a romantic way with a pictorialist style which was opposite what popular notion was at the time.
Curtis paid his subjects and chose their ornaments and clothing. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/essay3.html He played with natural light and his pictorial images were simulations of what really was. In some cases, the subject was not even a member of the tribe he or she was supposed to be from. Many of the ceremonies
and dances were staged. He removed any signs of modernism from his subjects such as suspenders or a parasol. The image of Oglala War-Party was created at a time when the subjects were starving on a reservation. In a Piegan Lodge was retouched prior to going into Curtis’s book with a crude removal of a clock that sat between the two subjects. 
If we go by the terms of fakery outlined in Dino Brugioni’s book Photo Fakery, which include removal of details and false captions, Curtis was certainly a photo faker
"Photography transcends natural boundaries and verbal language and is probably the most important vehicle for advancing ideas, and ideals, throughout the world," wrote Brugioni. "When a photo is manipulated in any way, truth is compromised; when truth is compromised, distrust begins. Distrust produces a lack of faith in the media," he noted, but photography "has always been manipulated."
Yet somehow people wanted to believe Curtis’s images were real.
From http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/teachersguide/timeline.html here is a narration from the actual show
Episode 1: Edward Curtis
[IN 14:39:20 NARRATION: "In the early part of the century, Edward Curtis published a 20-volume set of photographs documenting the lives of Native Americans. Most people’s idea of what Indians look like comes from Curtis’ photographs."]
[OUT 16:53:10 RAYNA GREEN: "And I want those pictures. I want the reality. I want the past as it was rather than as someone dreamed it into being."]
From the American Masters show, a comment from the producer http://www.thirteen.org/americanmasters/curtis/index.html
What I found on Indian reservations was a tremendous variety of responses to Curtis' photographs. Most people loved seeing pictures of their ancestors. It was interesting that, when telling stories about them, they nearly always talked about their departed ancestors in the present tense as if they were still here, and referred to them as relatives, not ancestors. Some people did say that their grandparents had feared the camera, believing that a part of them remained in the photograph. When these pictures did come back to families and to the reservations where they were taken, through the efforts of tribal cultural preservation offices or of researchers, they have usually been welcomed as though the ancestors were coming home. However, in my travels, I found that some Indian people did not welcome them. One Blood Indian man threatened to confiscate the Curtis pictures I showed him, saying they should never have been taken, that the people in them should be allowed to go on into the other world, and that their souls should not be held captive in photographs.-- Anne Makepeace
It is the perception of the photographer that has undermined or supported the photographic truth more than any digitally manipulated image. What one chooses to put within the confines of the frame, and, just as important, what one omits, determines what the photographer believes the truth is. Online resources such as Wikipedia, give the viewer, through video, immediacy to an event such as walking on the moon. While less dramatic, a visual representation of anything in the context of a book, newspaper, or magazine, give the viewer what they believe to be true if they weren’t there. A photographer’s life’s experiences as he or she grow up and older influences what one chooses to believe.
In the case of Edward S Curtis we have a history http://www.curtis-collection.com/curtis.html of his life. Curtis was the son of a preacher with an early interest in photography. To combat the stories and sketches of savagism, to preserve the “vanishing Indian, and to increase their presence, Curtis pursued his photography in a romantic way with a pictorialist style which was opposite what popular notion was at the time.
Curtis paid his subjects and chose their ornaments and clothing. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/essay3.html He played with natural light and his pictorial images were simulations of what really was. In some cases, the subject was not even a member of the tribe he or she was supposed to be from. Many of the ceremonies
and dances were staged. He removed any signs of modernism from his subjects such as suspenders or a parasol. The image of Oglala War-Party was created at a time when the subjects were starving on a reservation. In a Piegan Lodge was retouched prior to going into Curtis’s book with a crude removal of a clock that sat between the two subjects. 
If we go by the terms of fakery outlined in Dino Brugioni’s book Photo Fakery, which include removal of details and false captions, Curtis was certainly a photo faker
"Photography transcends natural boundaries and verbal language and is probably the most important vehicle for advancing ideas, and ideals, throughout the world," wrote Brugioni. "When a photo is manipulated in any way, truth is compromised; when truth is compromised, distrust begins. Distrust produces a lack of faith in the media," he noted, but photography "has always been manipulated."
Yet somehow people wanted to believe Curtis’s images were real.
From http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/teachersguide/timeline.html here is a narration from the actual show
Episode 1: Edward Curtis
[IN 14:39:20 NARRATION: "In the early part of the century, Edward Curtis published a 20-volume set of photographs documenting the lives of Native Americans. Most people’s idea of what Indians look like comes from Curtis’ photographs."]
[OUT 16:53:10 RAYNA GREEN: "And I want those pictures. I want the reality. I want the past as it was rather than as someone dreamed it into being."]
From the American Masters show, a comment from the producer http://www.thirteen.org/americanmasters/curtis/index.html
What I found on Indian reservations was a tremendous variety of responses to Curtis' photographs. Most people loved seeing pictures of their ancestors. It was interesting that, when telling stories about them, they nearly always talked about their departed ancestors in the present tense as if they were still here, and referred to them as relatives, not ancestors. Some people did say that their grandparents had feared the camera, believing that a part of them remained in the photograph. When these pictures did come back to families and to the reservations where they were taken, through the efforts of tribal cultural preservation offices or of researchers, they have usually been welcomed as though the ancestors were coming home. However, in my travels, I found that some Indian people did not welcome them. One Blood Indian man threatened to confiscate the Curtis pictures I showed him, saying they should never have been taken, that the people in them should be allowed to go on into the other world, and that their souls should not be held captive in photographs.-- Anne Makepeace
posted by Mark Smith | 3:17 PM
1 Comments:
It is more interesting to listen to what he was saying 100 years ago, than to simply accept the analysis of others.
I think his intent has been greatly maligned by a largely institutionalized Curtis bashing. People love to look at his pictures and presume he was working as some sort of Edward R. Murrow or something. First, and foremost, he was a portrait artist. JP Morgan hatched the project requirements that he was to perform.
He was getting paid, and so were the Indians... say no more. He created art, and included 20 volumes or observations.
The works have been dissected for the art, and few have read the text. Too many are busy interpreting the art, ascribing it various sorts of intentions. the text shows his intent.
Link:ES Curtis Film Clip
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