![]() ![]() The middle chapters of "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher" are filled with adventures as Curtis travels to remote parts of the West to learn from the Blackfeet people, the Hopi and the Apache. The project would consume his life for 33 years. In 1900 he had his "Big Idea." He would compile a photographic and ethnographic record of the native people of North America, creating a luxurious twenty-volume set of books. Rainier and the native people who still lived in the green bays of the Pacific Northwest. The business flourished thanks to Curtis's innovative and beautiful portraits.īut Curtis couldn't stay still. He mortgaged the family farm to get enough cash to partner in a photography studio in Seattle. Born in Wisconsin in 1868, Edward Curtis was a teen when his father died. ![]() ![]() Betsy Kepes has this review of Timothy Egan's new biography, "Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis."Įgan writes with flair and his book has the arc of a Shakespearean tragedy. The Curtis photos are a treasured resource to America's past. His portraits are of solemn faces looking at the camera, bodies decorated with traditional clothing and ornaments. His sepia prints show native people on horseback or in dugout canoes. You don't have to be a westerner to appreciate Edward Curtis's photos from a hundred years ago. ![]()
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