A Look at the Natives of the USA
Until the 1st of March, Curitiba houses a rare visual record of indigenous North-Americans — Sacred Legacy — an exhibition of the works of the photographer Edward Curtis (1868-1952). The exhibition showcases 52 photographs by Curtis, which are on display at the Galeria da Caixa.
From 1906 to 1930, Curtis made his way through various regions of the United States in order to register the daily life of the natives. Living in another era, in which there were no cars and photographic processes bore no resemblance to the facilities of our digital reality, Curtis achieved the feat of amassing 2,200 photos. Of these, 52 are on show in the capital of Paraná.
During the opening, the curator of the exhibition, Joao Kulcsar, gave a guided tour. He related aspects of Curtis’s odyssey in search of indigenous customs of days gone by. The photos, which are part of North-American Christopher Cardozo’s collection, are still-lifes. “After all, at the beginning of the 20th century, the photographic process was not capable of the precise capture of movement”, explained Kulcsar.
Between a wall and other spaces within Caixa Cultural, the spectator is confronted by portraits. There are braves going hunting. It is also possible to discover how the first inhabitants of North America dressed. In other words, the photos show their habits and customs.
The curator points out that this register is of extreme relevancy, as it depicts the Indians immediately before the acculturation process by the Europeans who settled and built America.
This anthropological odyssey was Curtis’s only work, but it stamped the photographer’s passport to immortality – his name is mentioned in books on the history of photography.
Curtis sought funding for the project, which was to take 24 years, but only managed to raise one-third of the money necessary, the fruit of the banker J.P. Morgan’s patronage. Curtis was to die a bankrupt, but not without leaving this legacy, which was born out of the occasion when the future photographer saved researchers observing natives from an accident. He also was soon to become a researcher and devote his life to this species of civilisatory mission: the recovery of the past.
