Portrait of Bick Juna, Zuni Man

EDWARD S. CURTIS (1868-1952)

Portrait of Bick Juna, Zuni Man

1903

In 1901, Seattle photographer Curtis conceived the most ambitious photographic project to document the lives and customs of American Indians, whom he called the "vanishing race." He received funding in 1906 from American banker J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) and immediately began publishing his most famous work, The North American Indian (20 vols., 1907-1930). Curtis's photographic legacy has been fiercely debated, both praised and disparaged for its authenticity. The closely cropped, full-faced portrait here was eventually included in volume 17 of The North American Indian and is typical of Curtis's portraiture, which clearly combines aesthetic with ethnographic concerns.

Platinum print

Princeton Collections of Western Americana, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Purchase, J. Monroe Thorington Fund.