Fact or fiction. Documentation or art. These dualities are common issues in a discussion of photography because, although the process is a mechanized way to creating images of the physical world, the photographer's subject choices and methods of depiction render the outcome subjective.
"To Image and To See: Crow Indian Photographs by Edward S. Curtis and Richard Throssel 1905-1910," a current exhibit in the Hood Museum of Art, inspires a discussion of photographic and cultural representation.
All 41 photographs in the show deal with the life of the Crow Indians at the beginning of this century. Curtis and Throssel's work, which follows a tradition of photography of Native American tribes, serve as valuable historical and anthropological documentation.
Both Curtis and Throssel worked closely and in the case of Throssel, lived closely with the Crow and developed amiable relationships with the tribes. Personal contact with the Crow allowed the photographers a different perspective from those of other photographers of the time, who documented Native Americans for government and commercial purposes. Still, we must take into consideration the way in which both photographers saw the Crow and chose to depict them.
The five-year period the exhibition covers lies within critical transitional stages for both the Crow Indians and photography. During the first decade of this century a large-scale government movement to relocate Native Americans onto reservations and assimilate them into the white culture was still going on.
Almost simultaneously photography was evolving from the tool of documentation, for which it was first used on a large scale in the U.S. during the Civil War. By the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries new methods of developing were evolving, allowing the photographer greater freedom to experiment artistically with the medium.
Curtis and Throssel's work was greatly affected and influenced by both transitions. The two photographers worked to capture the traditions and life-styles of the Crow before they were affected by assimilation. Photography allowed the two.
Curtis, the more well known of the two photographers, dedicated much of his career to traveling throughout the West on a quest to document the Crow. He authored "The North American Indian," a 22- volume publication, and by the time of his death in 1952, at the age of 84, he had produced approximately 50,000 photographs of 80 tribes.
Throssel came into contact with the Crow through his employment with the U.S. Government Bureau of Indian Affairs. Living closely with the Crow and learning their culture, Throssel was eventually adopted into the tribe.
Throssel learned photography while working with the Crow. (He studied with Curtis for a short time.) While his photographs aren't composed as artistically as Curtis', Throssel gives a personal view of the everyday life of the Crow.
Curtis' portraits of the Crow elders are some of the most striking pieces in the exhibit. In large, softly lit sepia photographs, he emphasizes telling characteristics of the men: facial scars, lines of aging and the intricacies of their clothing and jewelry.
"White Man Runs Him," one of the Crow scouts who participated in the Battle of Little Big Horn, served as a model for both photographers. In Throssel's version, the warrior is posed in an unnatural way but the photograph is very straightforward.
The up-close composition of Curtis' "White Man Runs Him - Apsaroke" (Apsaroke is the Indian of the Crow, by which Curtis often referred to them) the leader's headpiece and necklaces frame his determined and scared face. This gives a very emotional air to the photograph, rendering it more than a visual documentation of the Indian.
For the most part Curtis photographed male elders in their military gear. This aspect of the culture was what he saw as important to the Crow. He portrays the individuality of the men and doesn't fall into the trap of sentimental historic stereotypes, but his photographs don't cover many issues of Crow culture.
Throssel's photographs are primarily of the everyday life of the Crow, depicting the games they played, the spaces in which they lived and the hardships they faced. "Waiting for Rations," a photograph of Crow people anticipating promised government supplies, is a telling depiction of the destitute and dependent situation of Crow on the reservation.
Another important issue concerning subject matter is that Curtis rarely photographed women because they were not a part of the military aspect of life, in which he was interested. Depicting everyday life, Throssel photographed Crow women, who were known for their decorative skills. "The Bead Worker" shows a Crow woman laboring on an elaborate piece of clothing.
Accompanying the photographs are a few Crow artifacts: a girl's dress from the 1930s is decorated with elk's teeth, a sign of status; a men's prestige necklace of bone, leather and beads dates to the late eighteenth century; a war shirt from 1875 is adorned with weasel pelts in recognition of the wry animal's strength and cunning and is decorated with colored glass beads, which were introduced by Europeans.
The pieces are an excellent supplement to the photographs in the show because they provide a tangible comparison to images in Curtis and Throssel's work.
As a whole the exhibit is complicated. The photographs provide valuable visual information about the Crow Indians; they can also be considered for their artistic value, as long as the social and cultural content is kept in mind.
The same issues that make the show complicated also make it captivating. It is exciting that these images enable us to look back and piece the Crow into a history that failed to appreciate the richness of their culture. The exhibit promotes further discussion about issues of how to represent other cultures, both in documentation and in art.
The exhibit, which will remain in the museum through September 5, was put together by Tamara Nothern, Senior Curator of Ethnographic Art at the Hood Museum, and Wendi-Starr Brown '92, Hood Museum Intern and member of the Narragansett tribe.
