A friend recently lent me a copy of Anne Makepeace’s book: Edward S. Curtis. Coming to light. Amazon.com describes it as follows:

Bold, sometimes abrasive, forever passionate, Edward Curtis was the quintessential romantic visionary. Curtis struggled through an impoverished boyhood in Minnesota to become a successful society photographer in Seattle. But he soon moved far beyond weddings and studio portraits to his life’s work: multi-volume photographic and ethnographic work on the vanishing world of the North American Indian. Initially, Teddy Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan backed the ambitious project. But as the work stretched over years, Curtis found himself alone with his vision, struggling to finance himself and his crews. The 20-volume North American Indians, finally completed in 1930, cost Curtis his marriage, his friendships, his home, and his health. By the time he died in 1952, he and his monumental work had lapsed into obscurity. In this richly designed book, Anne Makepeace, creator of an award-winning documentary on Curtis’s life, reexamines the lasting impact of his work. Curtis’s photographs, once ignored, now serve as a link between the romantic past and contemporary Native American communities, who have used his images to reclaim and resurrect their traditions.

Christopher Cardozo, author of Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian describes the book as follows:

This groundbreaking work combines for the first time Curtis’s masterpiece images with an in-depth understanding of his life and the forces, events and people that influenced him. Essential reading for anyone interested in Curtis, his photography, or traditional Native American cultures.

I think it’s that combination that I found most interesting about this work.

For some time, I’ve had a book about Curtis: Curtis: The North American Indian. The Complete Portfolios. However, as the title implies this book contains mostly Curtis’s photographs. Somehow it left me wanting for more. There is an interesting introductory essay by Hans Christian Adam entitled “Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian”, but it doesn’t provide as much information on Curtis’s life motivation for taking on this extraordinary piece of work, the situation of the North American Indian at the times. Nor should one expect a 26-page essay to provide as much information as a 216-page book. The two books complement each other well, one providing more text, the other providing more photographs.

I had always thought of Curtis as something of a charlatan: someone who presented an overly glorified picture of the North American Indian in order to further his own career and increase his own riches. I see now that I was completely wrong. As the portfolio: “The Curtis Controversy” points out, Curtis certainly did frame his images to block out any evidence of modern life. He also asked his subjects to dress in traditional clothing (even if the clothing at times was not appropriate to a particular tribe). From time to time, he even manipulated the natural environment. I was particularly impressed/appalled with the way in which he once procured a whale carcass so he could stage a whale hunt. But no charlatan would ever have put in the time, effort, energy and personal finances that Curtis did.

Inspired by reading this book I decided to get hold of one of the originals. Not, of course, one of the original, limited editions that Curtis provided to his funders. These were extremely expensive at the time ($3,000 for a set in 1906 equivalent to about $105,000 equivalent today) and would be far, far beyond my reach now. However, facsimile editions are available, so I decided to buy Volume 1: The Apache, Jicarillas, and Navaho. It’s about 160 pages long. In all there are 20 volumes! I haven’t read it yet, but if I like it I might over time get the other 19.

Edward S. Curtis. Coming to light is a terrific book. It’s easy to hold (not true of all photobooks), nicely laid out, and extremely informative. I haven’t enjoyed a book so much in a long time.