The North American Indian

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

One of my first articles in French paid tribute to Edward S. Curtis. Here is what I wrote:

"I introduce an extraordinary man who devoted his life to become a familiar of Native American tribes and their photographer.

"Although prolific, Curtis was a perfectionist, who designed his images sometimes several years before shooting them, taking into account the random movement of tribes, the weather conditions, the very mood of the Indians of whom he wanted to represent the figures and customs as a whole. He was conscious that he witnessed the end of a civilization. He was able to have his work acknowledged by all his Indian interlocutors, although most of them remained fierce, as we know, in their considerations for White people.

"His work of thousands of photographs was summarized under the title" The North American Indian ", in a selection of 2500 photogravures printed from 1907 to 1930 in 20 large volumes, which are one of the most achieved monuments in the history of photography.

"When a complete set of" The North American Indian "appears on the market, it is an event. One of 30 copies on Japan silk was sold 607 K$ inclusive in October 2001 at Swann Galleries in New York. "

The complete set (40 volumes, including volumes of text) is extremely rare outside of large official or public libraries. The copy owned by the Wilmington Institute Library will be presented by Christie's in its sale of photographs on October 8 in New York. (I gave a wrong date when I created the post). Expecting 700 K$.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Unsold. Too bad! For such an important volume set, we should have seen the lot to understand the reason for this result.