© David Neel

 
Edward S. Curtis is a legendary photographer and his conviction to his work is well-known; a great and impassioned artist. Though, his life-long photo essay on the North American Indian will be forever flawed by the basic premise of his work. 

 He believed that the Native people of North America were destined to “vanish” and his mission was to document them. This proved to be a massive undertaking that would consume his life. Unfortunately he chose to attempt to document many of his subjects in the period before he lived, illustrating them in his version of a pre-contact environment. This oversteps the boundaries a documentary photographer works within, and his images become flawed illustrations of an imagined and idealized past.

 His photographic method included supplying props, wigs and cropping out contemporary items from photographs to achieve his visions of an “authentic” past. A tragic misjudgment, as it hugely undermines the value of the images in a social / historical context. Every visual fact and the message contained therein becomes suspect.

 Had he visually documented the Native world as he found it, at a point in history of great turmoil and social upheaval, his images may not have the same mass appeal they do now, portraying the “noble savage”. Though, they would be of far greater historical value, if they accurately portrayed Native American people and culture.

 Examples of documentary photographers who have respected these boundaries and have produced incredible images include: Jacob Riis, W. Eugene Smith, and Sabastiao Salgado.  Over time Curtis’ images contributed to the popular misunderstanding of Native peoples as vestiges of the past, with little or no place as a part of contemporary world; the precursor to the stoic “Hollywood Indian”.

 Curtis was a man of massive talent and passion who gave up much for his work, yet did not fulfill his great potential and created a flawed body of work. This being said, he remains a highly collected an influential artist, whose images are as widely published as any photographer. Though, his contribution could have been so much more, had he chosen to photograph his subjects as he found them, rather recreating them in the image of their ancestors.