Embassy Events

Exhibit of American Indian Photo's Debuts in Košice

Sacred Legacy

Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian
Photographs from the Collection of Christopher G. Cardozo

The Life of Edward S. Curtis

Edward Curtis was born in 1868 in rural Wisconsin in the North Central United States. Even though he undoubtedly had some contact with Native Americans while growing up, no specific record exists of any Native American influences on his childhood. Curtis built his first camera at age twelve and thus unwittingly embarked on his photographic career. At the age of seventeen he became an apprentice photographer. He was soon well versed in the fundamentals of photography and had become a serious and dedicated practitioner.

In 1892, Curtis secured a loan using the family homestead as collateral and quickly parlayed the proceeds into a share in a small photography studio in Seattle. Two years later, having established a modicum of financial stability, Curtis married and began a family. He quickly positioned himself as Seattle’s foremost studio photographer, and this success gave him a new-found level of financial freedom that allowed him to spend time away from the studio to pursue his love of the great outdoors. This exploration led him to encounters with small pockets of Native Americans who still maintained some vestiges of their traditional lifestyles.

These experiences led Curtis directly to begin, in 1906, an undertaking that would consume him for the next twenty-four years. This project was the creation of his magnum opus, The North American Indian, a twenty volume, twenty portfolio set of handmade books. Each set contains over 2,200 original photographs plus extensive text. It is difficult to overestimate the enormity of Curtis’s task. Not only was he making tens of thousands of negatives throughout the western United States and Canada, but he also acted as the project’s principal ethnographer, fundraiser, publisher, and administrator.
While The North American Indian is an inestimable contribution to the worlds of art, photography, ethnography, and fine bookmaking, the project nearly killed Curtis. He lost his family, his money, and his health. By 1930 he was a broken man. He lived out the rest of his life in obscurity, until his death in 1952.

Curator and Owner of the Collection:  Christopher G. Cardozo

Project Coordinator and Associate Curator: Todd Brandow

We particularly want to thank master printer Peter Bernardy who created the vast majority of the prints for this exhibition.  His hard work and commitment to excellence can be readily seen in many of the extraordinary, groundbreaking prints in this exhibit. 

We also want to acknowledge Peter deLory, who produced all of the beautiful pigment prints included in the exhibition.

Lastly, we want to thank Erica Gilbert, Chloe Woodward-Magrane and Jennifer Kramer for their continued administrative and logistical support throughout the process of creating this complex and demanding exhibition. 

Exhibition tours have been organized by Christopher Cardozo, Inc. and the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography.