Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
The Achievement of Edward S. Curtis: The Adventures and Travails of the Shadow Catcher
Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful. … because of his extraordinary success in making and using his opportunities, has been able to do what no other man ever has done; what, as far as we can see, no other man could do.”
Clay Jenkinson has spent years studying Curtis the man, Curtis the photographer, Curtis the artist, Curtis the husband and father, and Curtis the historian. Jenkinson’s talk will include a careful assessment of recent criticism of Curtis: that he romanticized his subjects, that he occasionally bribed or manipulated his hosts, that he intruded into sacred territory, and that he was occasionally blinded by the Myth of the Vanishing Indian.
The Achievement of Edward S. Curtis: The Adventures and Travails of the Shadow Catcher
Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “In Mr. Curtis we have both an artist and a trained observer, whose work has far more than mere accuracy, because it is truthful. … because of his extraordinary success in making and using his opportunities, has been able to do what no other man ever has done; what, as far as we can see, no other man could do.”
Clay Jenkinson has spent years studying Curtis the man, Curtis the photographer, Curtis the artist, Curtis the husband and father, and Curtis the historian. Jenkinson’s talk will include a careful assessment of recent criticism of Curtis: that he romanticized his subjects, that he occasionally bribed or manipulated his hosts, that he intruded into sacred territory, and that he was occasionally blinded by the Myth of the Vanishing Indian.
