Edward Curtis: The Master Prints [Hardcover]

Edward Curtis (Author, Photographer), Clark Worswick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

Edward S. Curtis was the greatest photographer of Native Americans that this country has ever produced. Curtis photographed more than eighty Native American tribes at what for many was the penultimate moment of their existence in a period spanning more than three decades. Seen in Curtis's photographs, these are peoples of free-reining spirit set in the vastness of a primal continent. Included are a selection of Curtis's master prints, which have never been seen before, and other prints that comprised Curtis's last great exhibition, mounted in 1906 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. Donated to the Peabody Essex Museum in 1906, these prints have never been exhibited since. This selection of photographs, which survive intact from almost one hundred years ago, proves that Curtis was not only a great photographer but also one of the most important artists ever produced in America. With this book, accompanied by a radical reappraisal of Curtis's work and place in American art by photographic historian Clark Worswick, Edward Curtis joins the ranks of John James Audubon, whose works on a uniquely American natural history subject admit no contemporary comparison.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

At the turn of the century, Edward Sherriff Curtis photographed Native Americans with his oversized, glass-negative camera and published 1400 gravures, later collected in his North American Indian volumes (LJ 1/90). In 1906, he personally selected 108 negatives, printed them with the platinum process he loved (which gives a dreamy, sepia glow to his subjects), signed them, and mounted them in an exhibition at the Waldorf-Astoria. Photographers hailed him as a genius; anthropologists derided him because he romanticized his subjects. His books were expensive and did not sell well. In time, his plates were lost via a nasty divorce, many of the books were dismantled and sold for prints, and he died in obscurity. Then in 1977, Clark Worswick of the Peabody Essex Museum was shown the Waldorf exhibition set of prints in a forgotten cabinet. The 108 prints are currently on exhibit again, and this handsome book is not only the catalog for that show but a tribute to Curtis's talent. Worswick's introduction offers a well-balanced discussion of the conflict between art photography and anthropology in Curtis's work. A beautiful addition to any library. Gay Neale, Meredithville, VA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Arena Editions; First Edition edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892041448
• ISBN-13: 978-1892041449
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,569,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The two exhibitions, April 1, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Edward Curtis: The Master Prints (Hardcover)

In 1906 photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis held the last showings of his large-format, large-scale platinum exhibition prints at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel and at Boston's St Botolph Club. He had gotten banker John Pierpont Morgan to agree to help pay for a complete photographic record of Native American life. So he sold his larger exhibition prints to Dr Charles Goddard Weld, who then gave the 108 photographs to what is now the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts. My sculptress mother and artist sister had already shared with me Curtis's pictorialist photography: so in my opinion THE MASTER PRINTS from these last two exhibitions are excellent examples of how the artist-photographer used chiaroscuro effects, close-ups and soft-focus lenses for dramatic and focused lighting, dark backgrounds for adding or subtracting details, and romantic poses to bring out strong personality and sweeping landscape. The book has helpful, to-the-point, well-written foreword, appreciation, afterword, and notes: I find it interesting that the prints might have been made with just an old German lens and a heavy-to-carry 14x17 view plate camera and that all the head and shoulder shots were taken in a tent lined with maroon-colored material and under lighting controlled by a skylight opening on one side. And I particularly like the prints that give a sense of place, such as the clearly photographed nature in "The Mojave water carrier," "Out of the forest depth" and "Taos water carriers"; a sense of family, such as "Hava Supai home," "Inuit hut and family," and Yakutat Indian seal hunter's hut"; a sense of community, such as Acoma and Walpi street scenes, "Apache camp" and "Apache village," "Blackfoot encampment," "Census hogan," "Estufa of San Ildefonso," "Mishongnovi," and [Tlinkit] "Council house"; and a sense of daily activity, such as "Threshing wheat," "Winnowing wheat," "Washing wheat," "Drying wheat," and "Hopi girls grinding peke bread meal." So the book's collection of photographic artistry works especially well with Shannon Lowry's NATIVES OF THE FAR NORTH, THE PLAINS INDIAN PHOTOGRAPHS, and THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN: THE COMPLETE PORTFOLIOS.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Les deux expositions, January 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Edward Curtis: The Master Prints (Hardcover)

En 1906 le photographe Edward Sheriff Curtis tenait deux dernieres expositions de ses gravures en platine, du format et de l'echelle grands, a l'Hotel Astoria de la Nouvelle York et au Club St Botolph. Car le banquier John Pierpoint Morgan venait de consentir a payer photographier la vie des peaux-rouges des Etats-Unis. Plus tard Curtis vendait ses gravures les plus grandes au Dr Charles Goddard Weld, qui a son tour faisait le don des 108 photographes au future musee Peabody Essex de Salem, dans le commonwealth de Massachusetts. Les gravures montraient a merveille les effets chiaroscuro, le focale attenue, les fonds assombris, les poses romantiques et les regards de tres pres, pour faire ressortir les caracteres forts du paysage vaste. Pour en faire tout cela Curtis se servait d'un objectif tres vieux, fabrique en Allemagne, et d'un appareil photographique lourd a porter. J'aime surtout les gravures qui me font comprendre le milieu, telle que De la foret profonde; les routines journalieres, telle que la serie Battre, vanner, arroser et secher le ble; la solidarite du peuple, telle que Dans les rues des peuples Acoma et Walpi; et la vie familiale, telle que La maison des Hava Supai.