
The Gift of the Face
Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis's the North American Indian
Shamoon Zamir(Author)
The University of North Carolina Press
Published on 28. February 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-4696-5911-4 (ISBN)
Description
Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian is the most ambitious photographic and ethnographic record of Native American cultures ever produced. Published between 1907 and 1930 as a series of twenty volumes and portfolios, the work contains more than two thousand photographs intended to document the traditional culture of every Native American tribe west of the Mississippi. Many critics have claimed that Curtis's images present Native peoples as a "vanishing race," hiding both their engagement with modernity and the history of colonial violence. But in this major reappraisal of Curtis's work, Shamoon Zamir argues instead that Curtis's photography engages meaningfully with the crisis of culture and selfhood brought on by the dramatic transformations of Native societies. This crisis is captured profoundly, and with remarkable empathy, in Curtis's images of the human face. Zamir also contends that we can fully understand this achievement only if we think of Curtis's Native subjects as coauthors of his project.
This radical reassessment is presented as a series of close readings that explore the relationship of aesthetics and ethics in photography. Zamir's richly illustrated study resituates Curtis's work in Native American studies and in the histories of photography and visual anthropology.
This radical reassessment is presented as a series of close readings that explore the relationship of aesthetics and ethics in photography. Zamir's richly illustrated study resituates Curtis's work in Native American studies and in the histories of photography and visual anthropology.
Reviews / Votes
Brilliant analyses. . . . A more nuanced pathway to reassessing Curtis's monumental achievement . . . in the history of intercultural interpretation." - Dialectical Anthropology"Bold and original." - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
"[Zamir's] analysis is often novel and compelling." - Journal of American History
"An important and significant new contribution to the scholarship of Native American studies, and also to anthropology, American history, photography, and the study of visual culture." -ARLIS/NA Reviews
"Insightful and persuasive...a valuable contribution to several disciplines." - Native American and Indigenous Studies
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Target group
Children/juvenile
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
10 colour plates, 49 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
600 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4696-5911-4 (9781469659114)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Shamoon Zamir
The Gift of the Face
Portraiture and Time in Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian
E-Book
08/2014
The University of North Carolina Press
€19.49
Available for download
Person
Shamoon Zamir is associate professor of literature and visual studies at New York University Abu Dhabi.