Edward S. Curtis: One Hundred Masterworks

This is without doubt the most important photographic book to be published in many years. Cardozo is the ultimate curator and his book an illuminating gift to this and future generations. Each of the essays by several world class notable scholar/artists is immensely helpful. I was especially moved by Dr. Michael Charles Tobias' crisp, brilliantly insightful essay on Curtis as the veritable father of America's environmental social justice movement. I have never heard that articulated before. And, once stated, it becomes absolutely obvious. No wonder Curtis initially meant to title his massive oeuvre (The North American Indian, instead, The Vanishing Race). That poignancy strikes at the heart of the ecological ethics upon which Tobias masterfully elaborates in the context of the Constitution and legislative initiatives to liberate African Americans and Native Americans before, during and after the life and death of President Lincoln. Moreover, Tobias' statement that Curtis was the "Rembrandt van Rijn of Native American portrait photography" truly chimed with my own sense of Curtis' genius. Says Tobias in the book, "Like Rembrandt, whose courage emerged as he himself aged and was resolved to show what it was like to be a real human being, Curtis photographed the reality of Native American life." This says it all, and comports beautifully with Cardozo's Introduction in which he notes, "It is not unprecedented, whether in this country or internationally, to see people at exhibitions moved to tears while looking at his [Curtis'] photographs." With wonderful additional essays by A.D.Coleman, Louise Erdrich and Eric J. Jolly, Christopher Cardozo's Edward S. Curtis: One Hundred Masterworks, is a mind-boggling tribute to the fact that art can save life; that the vision and pertinacity of one individual (aided, of course, by the funding from J. P. Morgan) can truly make all the difference in this world. Curtis was an absolute genius. Christopher Cardozo must be one of Curtis' long-lost relatives, given the deeply abiding spiritual connection between these two giants of culture, North American history, and aesthetics.

Quality product, display

As a serious photographer I have always been in awe of Edward Curtis as both a photographer and author. This book does justice to his life and work.

This was bought as a gift for someone else. They were so happy to receive this as it is a book filled with beautiful , timeless photos. Wonderful!

What I wanted were photos i could paint this book did not meet that expectation, and the other books i bought had many of the same photos so was returned.

If you've found your way to seeking the truth about indigenous people in this country, this book will further open your eyes. Curtis has a great vision and always surprises you when it comes to seeing the reality of the people that were her before us. I found this book to be extremely educational.

This is an amazing compilation of Curtis' works...Some of his very finest. I have looked a long time for such a book, consolidated with absolute authenticity and genuine respect for his work. Christopher Cardozo has achieved a masterpiece book and I cannot thank him enough for his obvious, "labor of love" in putting it together.

Excellent quality book and its contents contribute to appreciate and give value to the work of Curtis. Each portrait reveals the spirit of every Indian man. The book is an organization that allows to cross different cultures, elements, ceremonies and see the atmosphere of places that today many of them do not exist.

The quality of this book is outstanding. The quality of the images second to none. Considering the tools Curtis had available, it is almost impossible to comprehend how he could produce all these high quality images. This book is a must have for any serious photographer and a should have for everyone else.

This is a pictorial history of showing first people in a different light, as they were, not as some historians described them.

Beautiful heartrending glimpse into a long gone world

The cover sleeve was scratched and marked and edges creased.