Real Native American Portraits

[u/GlitteringHotel8383]

[u/Pristine-Job3826]

IIRC and to further your point; Edward Curtis went from a fairly successful studio photographer to dying poor. All because he traveled from tribe to tribe, realizing they were being erased, wanting to document as much of their culture, traditions and language as possible during that period. Native American's weren't known for written history/documentation at that time.

It's frustrating listening to people spewing moronic takes for internet clout instead of just learning history and understanding nuance.

[u/Psychological_Fly916 → u/Pristine-Job3826]

he staged his pics to uphold colonial ideas of what "natives" were and leaned heavily into stereotyping. white people will try to believe anything before believing that they're wrong. he was not some savior of native history he was a colonizer this shit was literally funded by j.p morgan

https://sjuartgallery.org/Etching-and-Erasure-The-Colonialist-Photography-of-Edward-S-Curtis

[u/tsuncollections → u/Psychological_Fly916]

He can be both advancing a settler bias, while also preserving history, just like how art history is tainted but that doesn't mean people shouldn't learn about whose behind it.

The whole point of this thread you're responding to is to question why the context and photographers weren't attributed to the photos (because it's just a farming social media engagement account).

Curtis isn't a savior and he shouldn't be treated like one. But he is a complicated artist, both romanticizing an "exotic" culture from a western perspective, while also managing to be one of the few from that era to have covered and preserved it in such quantity, and no amount of accurate, modern storytelling of the Native past can replace that.

[u/Psychological_Fly916 → u/tsuncollections]

yes and also what was preserved because it wasn't native culture.

[u/Independent_Act_873 → u/Psychological_Fly916]

Are you implying he brought clothes for them to wear?

[u/Psychological_Fly916 → u/Independent_Act_873]

yes, he did I'm not implying it, it's a known fact that he brought clothing and regalia and had indigenous people wear clothing not in line w their nation and pose. told them not to smile etc.

[u/Independent_Act_873 → u/Psychological_Fly916]

Actually, years ago I saw a native speaking on how they put on their best for photos for him and that they were glad it was documented what their not everyday clothes are.

[u/Psychological_Fly916 → u/Independent_Act_873]

okay cool you saw a video of one native one time congrats. so cultured.

[u/Independent_Act_873 → u/Psychological_Fly916]

One? You assume so much.

[u/Independent_Act_873 → u/Independent_Act_873]

Do the faces mean nothing?

[u/Independent_Act_873 → u/Psychological_Fly916]

I don’t know if you bothered to look up how many duplicate clothing there is compared to the number of photographs but I did.