photography | Proper Noun Blog

In the year 1900, photographer Edward Curtis traveled from his home in Seattle to Montana to witness a Native American Sun Dance, which he and other members of the expedition believed would be the last event of its kind, ever. Anne Makepeace writes about the effect this had on the man in her book Edward Curtis: Coming to Light:

“If some Indians believed that the camera could capture one’s soul, at this Sun Dance in 1900 it was Curtis’s soul that was captured. This vision of a passing world would change Curtis’s life, uproot him from his home, and send him on an Odyssean journey that would consume him for the next 30 years.”

I personally did not know the name Edward Curtis until quite recently when a colleague talked about a recently published biography of him, but some of his photographs were familiar to me. His haunting photographs of Native Americans around the country in the early twentieth century have become iconic. You can see many of them on display at the Minneapolis Central Branch of the Hennepin County Library from now through January 6th in an exhibit called “Beauty, Heart and Spirit: The Sacred Legacy® of Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian.” Photographers take note of the November 15th event at which master printers discuss Curtis’s ahead-of-his-time printing techniques.

I have yet to see the exhibit myself, but I’ve been reading about Curtis’s life:

This photo of Chief Joseph (shown here from the children’s biography Shadow Catcher: The Life and Work of Edward Curtis) was the one that clicked with me:

While his work was not without controversy, it remains a significant legacy. I know I can’t read about the dedication and empathy that Curtis put into this project without thinking about what might capture my soul in such a way.

–

A portion of purchases made from Amazon.com links on this site benefit Proper Noun Blog. Thanks for your support!

Can you tell when you look at a photograph whether it was taken by a man or a woman? What does it mean to be a woman? Is it emotional, personal, political, sexual? Are women mothers? Are we caregivers? Damsels? Is that how we see ourselves or our peers?

In the Woman as Photographer: Documenting Life as a Woman exhibit at the MPLS Photo Center, I saw mothers, lovers, sisters. There were women who had survived much who stared into the camera with smiles or what felt to me like determined eyes. The photos spanned continents, but I found myself focusing on the women whose stories I knew or had read about. The shot of a powerful looking African-American woman in front of an inner-city Chicago house. The photograph’s title said “principal.” I’ve read this story in articles and books. My heart ached for the painfully thin woman who sat on a thick cookbook. I have read so many stories of body image and eating disorders. I read teen novels, for crying out loud. So many teen novels are about girls growing into themselves, about exploring their boundaries, about creating space for themselves and their insecurities. I thought about these stories as I walked slowly through the gallery.

Many of these photographs were painful to see. Many were full of love. Others were thoughtful. To be honest, I am most struck by the diversity of the lives depicted in the photos. I am continually struck by the diversity of the women I have known or have read about. We are vast, and we are worth exploring. (I feel like I might have written about this before, but about books.)

The exhibit is open daily from noon to six until April 17th at the MPLS Photo Center. I highly recommend it.