Native American Portraits - Softcover

Hathaway, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877017573 ISBN 13: 9780877017578

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 1990

Synopsis

Over one hundred photographs from the renowned Kurt Koegler collection of Native American portraits taken between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I are featured in this powerful compendium depicting a proud and defeated people. Native American Portraits presents a factual, anecdotal, and visual history of the evolving artistry and technology of a century of photographers, as well as of the tribes whose vanishing trappings and traditions they sought to capture with their craft. The photographers -- William Henry Jackson, Camillus Fly, Carleton Watkins, and Lee Moorhouse, among scores of others -- were intrepid adventurers, fiercely committed to their work, who hauled hundreds of pounds of photographic equipment across the mountains and faced many dangers; their subjects -- including such important warriors as Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Red Cloud, Geronimo, and Chief Gall (who led the Indians to victory against Custer) -- appear venerable, dignified, and beaten. Fascinating and provocative, this richly illustrated and painstakingly annotated volume documents the intersection of photography in its infancy and Native American culture in precipitous decline.

About this title

About the Author

Nancy Hathaway is the author of The Unicorn, as well as many articles on photography, art, psychology, and other topics for a variety of magazines, including Harper's Bazaar, New Woman, American Way, and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. She lives in Venice, California.

From Library Journal

This volume of over 100 duotone photographs from the noted Kurt Koegler collection documents both the development of photography as an art and the history of a proud but defeated people. Early photographers like Alexander Gardner and William Henry dragged their equipment across mountains and deserts to photograph often hostile and suspicious subjects. With the closing of the frontier and the establishment of the reservations, the photographic style changed from a straightforward realism to the romantic image of the noble Indian. As Hathaway admits in her introductory essay, many of the pictures suffer from a lack of information about the Indians and the photographers, but the haunting images of warriors, medicine men, and families from many tribes make this a valuable addition to photography and Native American collections.
- Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0877017573
• ISBN 13: 9780877017578
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120