Paper short abstract

An examination of the contradictions and ambiguities declared and discernible in Edward S. Curtis’s photographic and ethnographic work among the Navajo in 1904 and 1906.

Paper long abstract

Edward S. Curtis, working with Navajo people in Arizona during 1904 and 1906, produced, as analysis will show, some of his finest portraits and most evocative genre views. With the help of Sam Day, he also photographed and filmed figures and ceremonies especially masked and (re)constructed for his cameras. This paper examines the visual and written record of the encounter, pointing up both ambiguities evident at the time and those of its legacy.