Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
TRIBAL TRIBAL
| |
E D WA R D C U R T I S
TRIBAL
E D I T E D B Y J O N AT H A N R E X
PAGE 1
TRIBAL
Tribal: a group of people having a common character, occupation, or interest. Subculture: an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society. -Merriam-Webster Dictionary
TRIBAL
FORWORD
Edward S. Curtis built his first camera after quitting school in the sixth grade and later became an apprentice at the age of seventeen. Two years later his family moved from Minnesota to Washington State. In Seattle he purchased a new camera and worked alongside other photographers until a chance encounter with a group of scientists while he was photographing Mt. Rainier. One of the scientists, George Bird Grinnell, became a close friend of his and helped get him appointed to the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899. Having only photographed one Native American woman named Kikisoblu (also known as Princess Angeline), the daughter of Chief Siahl (Chief Seattle, whom the city is named after), the expedition marked a pivotal moment in his life and career as a visual ethnographer. The expedition, organized by Clinton Hart Merriam (a founder of the National Geographic Society) and financed by the railroad executive E.H. Harriman, included some of the most prominent biologists, botanists, foresters, geologists, geographers, ornithologists, paleontologists, zoologists, writers, artists and arctic experts of the late 19th Century. Edward Curtis was the sole photographer aside from his assistant. The following year he traveled with Grinnell to Montana where he photographed the Blackfeet. Six years later J.P. Morgan paid Curtis $75,000 to produce a series on the various Western tribes of American Indians. This series was to include 25 volumes with 1,500 photos. During the course of his career he wound up photographing over 80 tribes, took over 40,000 photos, produced over 10,000 wax recordings of their languages and music and hired William E. Myers to write about their myths, foods, housing, clothing, ceremonies and funerary customs. In 1914 he also employed the use of motion pictures and released a feature length silent film titled In the Land of the Head Hunters. His work has been the target of critics concerned with its accuracy as an ethnographic study due to the fact that he avoided showing many hardships that the people in them actually faced. In some instances he also confused the tribal members with other tribes, paid them to pose as noble savage warriors in a time when they struggled with their most basic rights and liberties and intentionally removed signs of modernity from his portraits (such as a clock or wagon). While his photos cannot be viewed as a true work of visual ethnography but more of an ethnographic simulation his intention was to capture a way of life that would soon be almost entirely lost and that is what ethnography itself is all about (capturing cultures and subcultures for academic and historical purposes). The North American Indian deviated drastically from the Dime Novel depictions as well as from
TRIBAL
Vaudeville shows such as Buffalo Bills Wild West Show which featured Sitting Bull and inspired the reimagined storytelling of performers such as Te Ata Fisher in the Chautauqua Circuit during the 1930s. Just as the Eastern Woodland and Appalachian tribes (Iroquois, Shawnee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, Miami etc.) had mostly assimilated, adopted Christianity and/or relocated to reservations it was clear that the onward march west of settlements was ending the way of life for the people of the plains during the turn of the 19th Century. Although his lifes work may not live up to the expectations of modern academia it is stunning, astounding and an inspiration for people around the world. Following my foreword will be the one written by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt for Edward Curtis original book The North American Indian and after that I will conclude this with Curtis own words on why he undertook this project. The images in this book are taken from his complete published collection. I have personally gone through each individually, selected the images which stood out for me and edited them from their original form with Photoshop for presentation purposes here. Their original tint was a desert orange and the changes Ive made have been merely tone correction, color correction, brightness, contrast and to remove any noise or sharpen the images. I have not edited the subject matter in any way, shape or form. Tribal is not intended to be an academic work on visual ethnography but it was created with the field in mind. Others who may be interested in documentary film making, ethnographic research, photography, Native American culture or human history and our shared past and present tribal ways of living in general may find inspiration in these images. Whatever your reason for opening this book I hope that you enjoy his photos and my effort to select, edit and organize them here. Jonathan Rex
TRIBAL
TRIBAL
TRIBAL
TR I BAL
TRIBAL
PAGE 8
TRIBAL
PAGE 9
TRIBAL
PAGE 10
TRIBAL
PAGE 11
TRIBAL
PAGE 12
TRIBAL
PAGE 13
TRIBAL
PAGE 14
TRIBAL
PAGE 15
TRIBAL
PAGE 16
TRIBAL
PAGE 17
TRIBAL
PAGE 18
TRIBAL
PAGE 19
TRIBAL
PAGE 20
TRIBAL
PAGE 21
TRIBAL
PAGE 22
TRIBAL
PAGE 23
TRIBAL
PAGE 24
TRIBAL
PAGE 25
TRIBAL
PAGE 26
TRIBAL
PAGE 27
TRIBAL
PAGE 28
TRIBAL
PAGE 29
TRIBAL
PAGE 30
TRIBAL
PAGE 31
TRIBAL
PAGE 32
TRIBAL
PAGE 33
TRIBAL
PAGE 34
TRIBAL
PAGE 35
TRIBAL
PAGE 36
TRIBAL
PAGE 37
TRIBAL
PAGE 38
TRIBAL
PAGE 39
TRIBAL
PAGE 40
TRIBAL
PAGE 41
TRIBAL
PAGE 42
TRIBAL
PAGE 43
TRIBAL
PAGE 44
TRIBAL
PAGE 45
TRIBAL
PAGE 46
TRIBAL
PAGE 47
TRIBAL
PAGE 48
TRIBAL
PAGE 49
TRIBAL
PAGE 50
TRIBAL
PAGE 51
TRIBAL
PAGE 52
TRIBAL
PAGE 53
TRIBAL
PAGE 54
TRIBAL
PAGE 55
TRIBAL
PAGE 56
TRIBAL
PAGE 57
TRIBAL
PAGE 58
TRIBAL
PAGE 59
TRIBAL
PAGE 60
TRIBAL
PAGE 61
TRIBAL
PAGE 62
TRIBAL
PAGE 63
TRIBAL
PAGE 64
TRIBAL
PAGE 65
TRIBAL
PAGE 66
TRIBAL
PAGE 67
TRIBAL
PAGE 68
TRIBAL
PAGE 69
TRIBAL
PAGE 70
TRIBAL
PAGE 71
TRIBAL
PAGE 72
TRIBAL
PAGE 73
TRIBAL
PAGE 74
TRIBAL
PAGE 75
TRIBAL
PAGE 76
TRIBAL
PAGE 77
TRIBAL
PAGE 78
TRIBAL
PAGE 79
TRIBAL
PAGE 80
TRIBAL
PAGE 81
TRIBAL
PAGE 82
TRIBAL
PAGE 83
TRIBAL
PAGE 84
TRIBAL
PAGE 85
TRIBAL
PAGE 86
TRIBAL
PAGE 87
TRIBAL
PAGE 88
TRIBAL
PAGE 89
TRIBAL
PAGE 90
TRIBAL
PAGE 91
TRIBAL
PAGE 92
TRIBAL
PAGE 93
TRIBAL
PAGE 94
TRIBAL
PAGE 95
TRIBAL
PAGE 96
TRIBAL
PAGE 97
TRIBAL
PAGE 98
TRIBAL
PAGE 99
TRIBAL
PAGE 100
TRIBAL
PAGE 101
TRIBAL
PAGE 102
TRIBAL
PAGE 103
TRIBAL
PAGE 104
TRIBAL
PAGE 105
TRIBAL
PAGE 106
TRIBAL
PAGE 107
TRIBAL
PAGE 108
TRIBAL
PAGE 109
TRIBAL
PAGE 110
TRIBAL
PAGE 111
TRIBAL
PAGE 112
TRIBAL
PAGE 113
TRIBAL
PAGE 114
TRIBAL
PAGE 115
TRIBAL
PAGE 116
TRIBAL
PAGE 117
TRIBAL
PAGE 118
TRIBAL
PAGE 119
TRIBAL
PAGE 120