A Young Umatilla (The North American Indian, v. VIII. Norwood, MA: The Plimpton Press, 1911)
1 media/A_Young_Umatilla_The_North_American_Indian_v_VIII_Norwood_MA_The_Plimpton_Press_1911.jpg 2020-11-11T17:14:35-08:00 Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673e 38151 2 plain 2020-12-03T08:24:49-08:00 USC Digital Library 1911 photogravure Curtis, Edward S. Curtis Fletcher 3225f3b99ebb95ebd811595627293f68f680673eThis page is referenced by:
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Edward Sheriff Curtis, A Young Umatilla, 1911
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Historian James R. Ryan has touched on the way that British photographers made their way around the lands of Africa and China, taking photos of the natives and the various challenges behind the process. In light of his research, we can further analyze Edward Sheriff Curtis’s photos of the Native Americans of North America.
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Historian James R. Ryan has touched on the way that British photographers made their way around the lands of Africa and China, taking photos of the natives and the various challenges behind the process. As Ryan explains, the process of posing the natives was often difficult to execute. In indigenous communities where cameras were not common and in a context where the idea of having permanence in a figure was not even a conception, the fact that the natives often reacted so negatively was understandable. In taking these ideas of being uncomfortable in front of the camera we can further analyze Edward Sheriff Curtis’s photos of the Native Americans of North America. Many of the photographs Curtis took show a tangible discomfort on the part of the subjects. The example here, A Young Umatilla, shows a Native American covering their face while having their portrait taken. This action seems to be a result of unease in front of the camera and harkens back to Ryan’s initial observations about the discomfort of the subjects of British ethnographic photographers. If we consider this photograph as both an artwork and an anthropological document, we may recognize a disconnect between intention and interpretation. The photo can be interpreted as being a permanent portrait of a "vanishing race" as Curtis proposed. Perhaps the only photograph ever taken of this person is one where they are seemingly unwilling to be photographed. This speaks to the deeper themes of what portraiture does in freezing a moment in time, and to the extent to which photography is both a form of art and a form of documentation.
