Lesson 5

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans,” Gilbert King, Smithsonian Magazine, 2012
  • “What I Learned about Photography Projects from Edward S. Curtis,” Sean Tucker, YouTube, 2021

Optional

• • “Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy,” Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star, and Will Wilson, Portland Art Museum, 2016
  • “Will Wilson — Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy,” Portland Art Museum, YouTube, 2016
  • “Zig Jackson — Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy,” Portland Art Museum, YouTube, 2016

Materials

Tools

• Mentor Sentence Journal

• Video Note-Taking Tool

Question Sets

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Mentor Sentence Journal

• Photojournalism: Section 1 Question Set

• Video Note-Taking Tool

Activity 1: Discuss

With a reading partner, we will discuss the smithsonian article we read for homework and the text-specific questions we considered.

With a partner, compare and discuss your observations about the homework reading and your responses to these questions:

1. What more do you learn about Edward Curtis, The North American Indian project, and how he came to dedicate his life to that work?

2. How do the information in this article, its perspective, and its tone compare to the PBS article from George Horse Capture? Why might the two writers’ perspectives on Curtis and his work be different?

3. Why do you think that Curtis came to be endeared to and trusted by the Native Americans he studied? Why might they have named him “Shadow Catcher”?

4. What ironic sacrifices did Curtis make in order to complete his 20-volume opus, The North American Indian?

5. What are the two sides mentioned as to how critics have responded to Curtis and his work? In what ways might it be characterized as “photographic fakery”? As conveying the “dignity, universal humanity and majesty” of his Native American subjects?

Activity 2: Discuss

As a class, we will compare our thoughts and responses to questions 2, 3, and 5 from our homework reading.

As a class, share and compare your responses to these three text-specific questions:

2. How do the information in this article, its perspective, and its tone compare to the PBS article from George Horse Capture? Why might the two writers’ perspectives on Curtis and his work be different?

3. Why do you think that Curtis came to be endeared to and trusted by the Native Americans he studied? Why might they have named him “Shadow Catcher”?

4. What are the two sides mentioned as to how critics have responded to Curtis and his work? In what ways might it be characterized as “photographic fakery”? As conveying the “dignity, universal humanity and majesty” of his Native American subjects?

Activity 3: Read – Write

We will use a Mentor Sentence Journal to identify and record sentences we find interesting or ones that are strong examples of language concepts.

Step 1

Reading like a writer involves studying how an author writes and determining why the author makes specific writing choices at the paragraph and sentence level. Understanding what those writing choices mean and deconstructing how the author made those choices can help you emulate those choices in your own writing practice and diversify your range of writing strategies. As you read the texts in this unit, use your Mentor Sentence Journal to compile sentences that stand out to you. These sentences might be interesting, or they might represent a strong example of a particular language-use concept you have learned. You can use these sentences, as well as those from other units, to build a writer’s toolbox, wherein you have a number of techniques at your disposal to use when writing.

Step 2

Follow your teacher’s directions on how to record your first entry.

Activity 4: View – Write – Discuss

We will watch a video from a british professional photographer who discusses the impact of Curtis’s work on native history, photojournalism, and his own photography.

Step 1

Follow along as your teacher introduces or reviews the Video Note-Taking Tool, which you can use to help you pay attention to key details as you watch a video.

To use the tool:

1. Write down information about the title, genre, and other important identifying details at the top of the tool before watching the video.

2. As you watch, write down time markers every 30 seconds or so in the Timeline column. Alternatively, write down the time that key details occur in the video. This is sometimes more difficult to do.

3. In the Details column, note details, visual images, quotations, examples, and other important information as you view the video. You might need to use shorthand for these details (e.g., “detail about Geronimo and environmental portraiture and vanishing race,” or “detail about setting up shots with a black cloth and aperture””) and return later to get more information. If you can, indicate approximately where and when in the video you noted the detail.

4. While watching, or later as you return to your notes, analyze the details you write down, making a brief note in the Analysis column. Briefly explain what the evidence tells you about the topic, theme, or a perspective the video presents.

5. So that you are aware of how different types of details contribute to the message and meaning of the video, you can use the Types of Details key at the bottom of the tool to code them. This coding can also help you relocate the detail if you rewatch the video more closely.

Step 2

Access and watch the beginning segment of "What I Learned about Photography Projects from Edward S. Curtis," a personal video created by British photographer Sean Tucker about the inspirational work (for him) of Edward Curtis. Start watching at the 0:30 mark, when Tucker introduces his subject, up to 5:20, where he introduces the book The North American Indian (which summarizes Curtis’s 20-volume series).

Use a Video Note-Taking Tool to record key ideas and details from the video in response to this text-specific question:

1. What more do you learn about Princess Angeline, how she inspired Curtis’s life’s work, and the nature of his quest to capture Native American culture before it vanished?

Compare and discuss the notes you have taken and what you have learned so far from the video.

Step 3

Continue watching the video, pausing at key moments to discuss these questions and the details that you have recorded:

2. When Tucker is describing Curtis’s photographs, what sort of visual details does he talk about? How does seeing the photos through the eyes of a professional photographer enhance your own viewing of them? (6:00-7:30)

3. What reasons does Tucker present for characterizing Curtis’s portraits as “some of the most compelling stuff I’ve seen” and “stunning”? (7:50)

4. What details do you learn about how Curtis was able to capture and produce his “stunning” portraits? (8:15-9:00)

5. What challenges did Curtis face during the thirty years he spent on the project? (9:40-10:30)

Step 4

Watch a final segment of the video up until the 15:00 mark and discuss these questions:

6. Why might some people characterize Curtis’s work as problematic or culturally insensitive? What is Tucker’s perspective on this kind of characterization and on Curtis’s role as a “lowly photographer”? (10:30-13:30)

7. Why does Tucker characterize Curtis as “someone of high integrity who puts the truth before they put their own interests”? Based on what you have learned about Curtis’s work, do you agree? Why or why not? (13:30-15:00)

8. How does Tucker’s characterization of Curtis relate to the words of John Morris we considered in Lesson 1?

   Truth is the objective of good journalism; beauty is secondary to the truth. But the great photographers usually manage to get pictures which are not only truthful but beautiful.

Step 5

In your Learning Log, write a personal reflection about what you have learned regarding Curtis’s work and whether you see him as “a great photographer” who managed “to get pictures which are not only truthful but beautiful.”

Activity 5: View – Discuss

To further think about the impact of Curtis’s work on other photographers, we will watch two short videos about contemporary Native American photographers, Zig Jackson and Will Wilson. We will learn about how the work of contemporary native photographers relates to that of Edward Curtis.

Step 1

As a class, access, watch, and briefly discuss the Portland Art Museum video titled “Zig Jackson – Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy.”

Step 2

Access the Portland Art Museum’s overview of its 2016 exhibition, also titled Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy, which included work by Zig Jackson and another Native photographer, Will Wilson.

Closely read the second paragraph of the article, considering how it characterizes Curtis and his work. Examine and discuss this key sentence, which again addresses the truth of Edward Curtis’s Indian photographs:

This beautiful but often idealized representation of Native culture has elicited both praise and scrutiny, as many photographs were posed and manipulated in order to eliminate signs of modern life and create the artifice of a pre-European snapshot in time.

Step 3

Individually, read the two paragraphs that present information about Zig Jackson and Will Wilson.

Use the Multimedia link on the Portland Art Museum site to access a short video about a second Native photographer, Will Wilson, who uses photographic techniques similar to those used by Curtis to capture images of current Native peoples and cultures.

1. What do you learn about the work of Zig Jackson and Will Wilson as contemporary Native photographers?

2. In what ways do you think Edward Curtis has influenced their work?

3. In what ways is their work a personal and cultural response to the way Curtis portrayed Native Americans?

Activity 6: Write

We will write a response to the lesson’s question about Curtis’s legacy and influence in our Learning Logs.

For homework, use evidence from the videos you have watched and texts you have read to write and support a response in your Learning Log to this question:

1. How did Curtis’s work advance photojournalism, change our perceptions of Native American culture, and influence other photographers?