EDWARD S. CURTIS: PORTRAITS

The foremost photographer of Native American life of all time …

At the dawn of the 20th century, a celebrated young 'art' photographer, Edward Sheriff Curtis, abandoned his lucrative career doing portraits of socialites to embark on an anthropological project so ambitious as to seem even today impossible: documenting the life and culture of every major Native American tribe west of the Mississippi.

It was almost impossible, a four decade struggle that was ruinous for Curtis but produced an ethnographic collection of incalculable value and a photographic record of North America's indigenous peoples considered unparalleled in depth, artistry, and humanity.

Now, Easton Press is proud to present: Edward S. Curtis Portraits: The Many Faces of the Native American, leather-bound Collector's Edition.

A triumph of art and visual anthropology.

The 250 images of Native American men, women, and children in Edward S. Curtis Portraits: The Many Faces of the Native American display North America's native peoples in their own world – and do so in some of the most glorious images in the history of photography.

Curtis was not an ordinary photographer but an uncompromising artist and master of lighting, composition, and printmaking who used large – often 14” x 17”– heavy, and fragile glass plate negatives rather than film in order to create these uniquely detailed, intimate, and luminescent images.

But there is more than technique to Curtis' art. He didn't just photograph his subjects, he lived with them and learned their culture, customs, and history, establishing a rapport and respect that animates his portraits.

“Curtis mastered the art of making his subject so dimensional, so present, so complete, that it is to me as though I am looking ... through a window, as though they are really there in the print and in the paper, looking back at me.” – Native American novelist Louise Erdrich.

Iconic Native American photographs in a gorgeous Collector's Edition.

Easton Press has created for this stunning collection of Edward S. Curtis photographs a Collector's Edition worthy of America's indigenous peoples and the great photographer.