Edward Curtis

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Edward S. Curtis, self-portrait

Edward Sheriff Curtis (born February 16, 1868 in Cold Spring , Wisconsin , † October 19, 1952 in Whittier , California ) was an American photographer who spent 30 years of his life portraying the manners and customs of the Indians of North America .

Origin, childhood, own family

Curtis' father was Reverend Johnson Asahel Curtis (1840-1887), a pastor and veteran of the Civil War . He was born in Ohio , but his father was from Canada and his mother from Vermont . Edward Curtis' mother, Ellen Sheriff (1844–1912) was from Pennsylvania , her parents were from England . Edward Sheriff Curtis had three siblings.

Edward Curtis was passionate about photography as a boy and built a camera when the family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota in 1874 . He began an apprenticeship in a photo studio in St. John when he was 17. When the family in 1887 after Seattle moved, Curtis bought a second camera and bought 150 dollars in the photo studio of Rasmus Rothi one. But the two separated again after half a year. A little later, he and Thomas Guptill founded a new studio called Curtis and Guptill, Photographers and Photoengravers . He later set up his own studio in Seattle, 700 Second Ave.

In 1892, Curtis and Clara J. Phillips (1874–1932) married from Pennsylvania , whose parents were from Canada. Edward and Clara had four children: Harold (born 1893), Elizabeth M. (Beth) (1896–1973), Florence (1899–1987), and Katherine (Billy) (born 1909).

First Indian photos, successes and sponsors, the main work

In 1895 he made the first recordings of Indians, more precisely of the daughter of Duwamish , called Princess Angeline - Chief Sealth (Chief Seattle), whose real name was Kikisoblu (around 1800 to 1896). A little later he met George Bird Grinnell , who had been studying Indian culture for a long time, and who took him on a photo tour to the Blackfeet of Montana in 1900 , where he photographed a sun dance ceremony.

In 1896 Curtis and Guptill won an award from the National Photographers Convention in Chautauqua , New York . The Argus magazine she explained even the leading photographers in Puget Sound . In 1896 the family moved into a larger house in Seattle, into which Ellen Sheriff, Curtis 'mother also moved, as well as Eva and Asahel, Curtis' siblings, as well as two sisters and a nephew of Clara. In 1899, Curtis became the official photographer of Edward Henry Harriman's Alaska expedition .

Chief Joseph von den Nez Perce, 1903

In 1903 Chief Joseph von den Nez Percé visited him and had himself portrayed. Curtis hired Adolph Muhr to represent him during his acquisition trips. Curtis published photos of children and won a Ladies' Home Journal award that attracted President Theodore Roosevelt's attention. He then had his children photographed by Curtis.

The first edition (1907) of Vol. 1 of the North American Indian

In 1906, JP Morgan offered him $ 75,000 to create a huge series of photos about North American Indians. Ultimately, a total of 20 volumes with around 1,500 photographs were created by 1930. The sponsor received 25 of the print run of 500 copies. The first volume to which Roosevelt contributed the foreword appeared as early as 1907; the second volume followed in 1908. But in 1913 the sponsor died and funding was in jeopardy. Fortunately for Curtis, Morgan's son took over the financing and promised to continue it until the huge project was completed.

Edward S. Curtis tried to portray in his eyes the way of life and the traditions of numerous Indian tribes that were disappearing. Around 40,000 photographs of around 80 tribes were taken. There were also 10,000 voice and music recordings as well as numerous biographies. He traveled through North America for almost three decades. The first volume of The North American Indian appeared in 1907. In 1912 and 1913, volumes 8 and 9, in 1915 volumes 10 and 11, and with volume 20, the last volume appeared in 1930. During the recordings, Curtis often tried to depict the Indians as he imagined them to be without the ingredients of European-American culture. As a child of his time, he succumbed to romantic notions of a declining culture and lost sight of the dynamic of adaptation and the tenacity with which the photographed clung to their culture.

The failed film project

Potlatch with dancers and singers of the Kwakwaka'wakw, on the occasion of a wedding celebration

In 1914 Curtis made the documentary In the Land of the Head Hunters , in which the tribal name is not mentioned, but was shot at the Kwakwaka'wakw on the western Canadian island of Vancouver Island . With this film Curtis took a high risk, because between 1884 and 1951 it was not only forbidden in Canada to celebrate ritual celebrations such as the potlatch , but it was also a criminal offense to show them in public.

The film was not used for scientific documentation, but was supposed to bring in Curtis money so that he could continue his work after the death of its main sponsor. Curtis tried to make some kind of entertainment film, but the company was unsuccessful. The starting point for the film, which was made within a year, was Alert Bay . But the movie did so badly that Curtis sold the rights to the Museum of Natural History for $ 1,500 in 1923 . This, in turn, could never find the copy, the film was lost.

In 1947, however, a Chicago film collector offered a copy found in the trash collection of a cinema to the Field Museum . But it wasn't until 1967 that art historian Bill Holm and George Quimby, an anthropologist from the Burke Museum in Seattle , began to restore the parts. In 1974 the result could be performed for the first time under the new title "In the Land of the War Canoes". The film, which has now been restored as close as possible to the version of the premiere and commented on by members of the Kwakwaka'wakw, was shown again on June 24, 2008 in Seattle. It was first performed again on June 5, 2008 at the Getty Research Center in Los Angeles . Since 1999, the film has officially been one of the most significant films in American film history, because it was included in the National Film Registry .

Divorce and move to Los Angeles

On October 16, 1916, Clara filed for divorce, but it did not take effect until 1919. She was supposed to get the photo studio and all early negatives, but Curtis went into the studio with his daughter Beth and destroyed the glass negatives.

Hoopa , Northern California

Around 1922 Curtis moved to Los Angeles with his daughter Beth, where he opened a new photo studio. There he also worked as a cameraman and sold his rights to the film about the Kwakwaka'wakw to the American Museum of Natural History for $ 1,500.

Returning to Seattle from a trip to Alaska , he was arrested for seven years of no maintenance. However, an agreement appears to have been reached because the charges have been dropped. But that did not solve Curtis' money problems. In 1928 he sold the rights to his project to his son JP Morgans and in 1930 he published the final volume of his massive work. But only 280 copies of the total edition were sold. Two years later, his former wife drowned rowing in Puget Sound . Katherine, who had continued the photo studio with her, moved to live with her father and sister in Los Angeles.

Loss of rights to North American Indian , prospectors and farmers

In 1935 the Morgan Company sold not only 19 sets of the tape, but also all of the printing plates, the unbound printed pages and the glass negatives to the Charles E. Lauriat Company in Boston for $ 1,000 . However, everything together remained untouched in the company's storerooms until it was rediscovered in 1972.

Curtis, always in need of money, tried his hand as a prospector and farmer. In 1947 he moved to the home of his daughter Beth and her husband Manrod Magnuson in Whittier. He died of a heart attack on October 19, 1952.

literature

  • Hans Christian Adam: Edward S. Curtis 1868–1952. Taschen, Cologne 2012.
  • Edward S. Curtis: The Indians, my friends. CH Beck, Munich 1997.
  • Edward S. Curtis. The Indians of North America. Taschen, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-8228-4770-4 .
  • Paula Richardson Fleming, Judith Lynn Luskey: Shadow Catchers . The Indians of North America in historical master photographs. CH Beck, Munich 1996.
  • Mick Gidley: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian, Incorporated. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England 1998, ISBN 0-521-56335-6 .
  • Mick Gidley: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian Project in the Field. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA 2003.
  • Florence Curtis Graybill, Victor Boesen: A Memorial to the Indians. Edward Sheriff Curtis and his photographic work on the Indians of North America 1907–1930. CH Beck, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-406-04123-X .
  • Timothy Egan : Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, Massachusetts 2012, ISBN 978-0-547-84060-4 .

Web links

Commons : Edward Curtis  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Aaron Glass - Restored Edward Curtis Film with Live Music and First Nations Dance, contribution by the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, June 22, 2008 .
personal data
SURNAME Curtis, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Curtis, Edward Sheriff
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Cold Spring , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH October 19, 1952
Place of death Whittier , California