Edward Curtis’ epic portraits of North American indians are a joy. And so too are his pictures of North America’s indigenous peoples dressed in ceremonial masks. Curtis began his quest to record what he feared was a vanishing world in 1901. He said:
The pictures are wonderful – but as snapshots in time they are only a small and valuable part from the story of a great race.
The passing of every old man or woman means the passing of some tradition, some knowledge of sacred rites possessed by no other… consequently the information that is to be gathered, for the benefit of future generations, respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost for all time.We’d argue that stories last; passed on orally, they take lives of their own, growing and changing in harmony with the people who tell them and listen. The visual portrait is not the be all and end all of a culture. The North Americans Indians were not stuck in an ancient style that would never change. Their culture has roots, branches, dead wood and new shoots. It needed then, as it does now, to breathe in the light or else it dies.
The pictures are wonderful – but as snapshots in time they are only a small and valuable part from the story of a great race.
