news | Wednesday February 23, 2011

'Smiling Indians' - Take that, Edward S. Curtis!

(a short film by Sterlin Harjo and Ryan Red Corn)

Edward S. Curtis is famous for his photographs of Native Americans–those he thought to be a “vanishing race.” His pictures ended up defining the look and even personality of the people he documented, at least in the eyes of non-Indians. Curtis didn’t like for his Indians to smile, and he even messed with the pictures a bit to make them fit his narrative.

The Edward Curtis Project: A Modern Picture Story, a play (and critique) by Métis playwright Marie Clements is now available, accompanied by the exceptional photographs of Rita Leistner.