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Something that was fascinating to me in this week’s lectures was how photography was used as a part of the colonization of the Western United States. We briefly discussed the photography of Edward C. Curtis and how his portraits of Native Americans have a controversial history. Curtis sought to document the lives and culture of Native Americans before they “disappeared” and “vanished”. Thus, with funding from JP Morgan, Curtis eventually amassed 40,000 photographs of 80 different tribes along with notes, recordings, and sketches. Eventually, he created a volume of books with 2,000 of these photographs entitled “The North American Indian”.
Left: Nunivak Island man, wearing headdress with a wooden bird head in front, ca. 1929. Right: Mosa, Mojave, ca. 1903 retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/ ... go/100489/
Wedding guests, Kwakiutl people in canoes, British Columbia, ca. 1914 retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/ ... go/100489/
Personally, I find it difficult to fully understand Curtis’ intentions. A significant amount of backlash against Curtis’ work is that his photographs perpetuated the westernized, white view of the “noble savage”. Indeed, many critics remark how Curtis staged many of his photos to present a romanticized view of Native Americans. For example, below is Curtis’ photo “In the Piegan Lodge”. The main difference is that in the second image, Curtis removed the clock, and this was the final published version of the photograph.
In a Piegan Lodge, by Edward S. Curtis, 1910. Retrieved from
https://daily.jstor.org/edward-s-curtis ... s-reality/
Writings from Curtis also distinctly demonstrate how his sympathy for Native Americans could not be separated from his own colonial, white perspective, as this excerpt from an article he wrote illustrates:
“The Indians of North America are vanishing. Within the span of a few generations, they have crumbled from their pride and power into pitifully small numbers, painful poverty, and sorry weakness. A few generations more will see quite bared of them the land they held in exclusive sovereignty when we white men first discovered it. A vanishing race! There is a majestic pathos in the words; a tragedy so great that it must be regarded as an epoch-making matter.” - From Hampton Magazine article "The Vanishing Redman" (1912)
https://www.curtislegacyfoundation.org/ ... fbf1c1.pdf
However, the work that Curtis did includes some of the only records we have of many Indigenous Americans before they were forced onto reservations. Beyond photography, for example, Curtis also recorded many tribes spoken languages and songs. Furthermore, Curtis dedicated his life to this work and, despite being able to secure funding for his project, he was not compensated for a significant period of time. Thus, the complexity of Curtis and his documentation cannot be so quickly dismissed.
That being said, Curtis’ works also remind me of the documentary “Nanook of the North” which similarly sought to capture the lives of indigenous peoples of the Canadian Arctic. Robert J. Flaherty, the documentarian who created the film, fictionalized a significant amount of the film including the cultural practices of the Innuits he followed. For instance, Flaherty staged the film so that his subjects used harpoons to hunt and wore traditional clothing though by the time the film was made Innuits used rifles to hunt and often wore Western clothing. However, despite the fabrication sof the film, “Nanook of the North” is regarded as the basis for documentary inspiring several other non-fiction filmmakers and serving as the foundation for the documentary film genre.
You can watch the whole film on Youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkW14Lu1IBo
It brings to light the idea of power and documentation. How can we ever separate the values, biases, and beliefs held by the photographer from the images they choose to capture?
But, how can we also appreciate this work as preserving a historical record? When so much of history is understood through photographs and images, then is our history dictated by those who happen to capture these moments? Furthermore, whose images are the ones chosen and championed to represent history?
References:
- Edward Curtis and the Background of the Collection | Articles and Essays | Curtis (Edward S.) Collection | Digital Collections | Library of Congress [Web page]. (n.d.). Retrieved April 11, 2022, from Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA website: https://www.loc.gov/collections/edward- ... ollection/