Canyon De Chelly

Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) recognized the cultural vulnerability of the American Indian. Beginning in the late 19th century, he embarked on a devotion to more than thirty years of his life to the development of a photographic record of all the features of Indian life and environment, young and old, the arts, ceremonies, games, and everyday customs. Curtis recognized the inevitability of the extinction of American Indian culture, and resolved to document the power of the people’s images with camera before they were lost forever. Never before or since has a people been so clearly and sensitively recorded. Edward S. Curtis was a chronicler of not only the moment, but of an entire culture at peace with nature - one he felt sure was soon to be lost, as indeed it was.

Curtis employed an unsurpassed method of reproducing his photography – photogravure, a unique photo reproduction method. The process is painstakingly slow because it involves inking by hand and the careful use of a hand-operated, flat-bed press. Initially, the negative is etched into a copper plate by a complex chemical process. The etched plate is then inked, and the surface carefully wiped clean, leaving the ink only within the etched areas. The final print must then be flattened and dried over several days. Clearly a difficult photographic method, it was, however, the perfect medium to demonstrate Curtis' response to the play of light and shadow on his subject and the artistry of his composition.