Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis - Hardcover

Egan, Timothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618969020 ISBN 13: 9780618969029

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012

Edward Curtis was dashing, charismatic, a passionate mountaineer, a famous photographer€”the Annie Liebowitz of his time. And he was thirty-two years old in 1900 when he gave it all up to pursue his great idea: He would try to capture on film the Native American nation before it disappeared. At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, Egan€™s book tells the remarkable untold story behind Curtis's iconic photographs, following him throughout Indian country from desert to rainforest as he struggled to document the stories and rituals of more than eighty tribes. Even with the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan, it took tremendous perseverance€”six years alone to convince the Hopi to allow him into their Snake Dance ceremony. The undertaking changed him profoundly, from detached observer to outraged advocate. He would die penniless and unknown in Hollywood just a few years after publishing the last of his t

Review:

In the summer of 1900, Edward Curtis gave up a successful photography career to pursue a quixotic plan: to photograph all the Indian communities in North America. He quickly learned that his subjects were dying off fast, so he’d need to hurry if he was “to capture the essence of their lives before that essence disappeared.” A mountaineer, explorer, intrepid photojournalist, and amateur anthropologist, Curtis was Ansel Adams crossed with Annie Leibovitz, a willful and passionate chronicler of a people he came to love. “I want to make them live forever,” Curtis said in the early days of his decades-long mission. As Egan’s thrilling story attests, he succeeded, even though he died penniless and alone. --Neal Thompson

Photos from the Author (Amazon.com Exclusive)

Bear's Belly (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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Before the Storm (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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Canyon De Chelley (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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  Oasis in the Bad Lands (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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Piegan Encampment (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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Watching Dancers (Edward S. Curtis, courtesy of Cardozo Fine Art)

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Book Description:

HMH hardcover 2012 Previous ISBN 978-0-618-96902-9

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0618969020
• ISBN 13: 9780618969029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 370