The gallery presented here is an attempt to graphically articulate the idea of Vanishing Race by grasping Curtis' vision of the reality of American Indian life. The images might be characterized as those depicting American Indians as civilization on the edge of the extinction, such as for example, a nostalgic photograph
"Into the Desert" or explicitly titled depictions
"The Primitive Apache in his mountain home" and
"Primitive Apache home." Other photographs show American Indians as exotic people who exist as parts of natural world, such as, for example,
"The octopus catcher" and
"The octopus hunter." Many images give a sense of the American Indians as different and distant peoples when compared to those who discovered and represented them.