It was this latter project that brought him his fame, and also his financial woes. The book covers Curtis’ early childhood on the plains of Minnesota, his years of back-breaking work along Seattle’s harbors, his time as Seattle’s famous society photographer, and his interest and obsession with photographing the vanishing American Indian. In Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, author Timothy Egan delivers an insightful biography of this great American photographer. But for his life-long work (a 20-volume set depicting the North American Indian) he was never paid a dime. Morgan, and met and photographed the famous Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. He hobnobbed with the Seattle elite as a photographer of the rich and famous, he photographed the family of President Teddy Roosevelt, bargained with America’s richest man J.P. So when I picked up a new book about Edward Curtis (1869-1962) I was eager to learn what it had to say.Ĭurtis’ life was a Horatio Alger story in a way, with more of a rags-to-riches-to- rags twist. To improve and learn more about one’s own photography, I believe it’s important to learn about photographers who came before.
In the process, the charming rogue with the grade school education created the most definitive archive of the American Indian.In early American photographic history there were a handful of giants, including Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, William Henry Jackson, and Edward Curtis. Curtis would amass more than 40,000 photographs and 10,000 audio recordings, and he is credited with making the first narrative documentary film.
And the undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. It took tremendous perseverance - ten years alone to persuade the Hopi to allow him to observe their Snake Dance ceremony. But when he was thirty-two years old, in 1900, he gave it all up to pursue his Great Idea: to capture on film the continent's original inhabitants before the old ways disappeared.Ĭurtis spent the next three decades documenting the stories and rituals of more than eighty North American tribes. He moved in rarefied circles, a friend to presidents, vaudeville stars, leading thinkers. Egan's spirited biography might just bring the recognition that eluded him in life." - The Washington PostĮdward Curtis was charismatic, handsome, a passionate mountaineer, and a famous portrait photographer, the Annie Leibovitz of his time. "A vivid exploration of one man's lifelong obsession with an idea. New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Timothy Egan reveals the life story of the man determined to preserve a people and culture in Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Description A New York Times Notable BookĪ Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
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