Randomness And Tags

Art Discussion Post

So, I had to read two articles and watch two videos on Edward Curtis and then answer the questions and this is what I wrote. It was due on 11/27/2020 but because it was the holidaze she extended it to 29 Nov 2020 at 11:59 pm and this is what I managed to come up with:

(I do not know who the artist is to any pictures used, I just think they are pretty)

Curtis is an important man in history because he is one of the firsts to ever capture Native Americans on camera. He wanted people to know about the life of the Native Americans because they were declining due to broken treaties and the railroads. He did many things right such as capturing the essence of the life of being a Native American where they are just being normal, doing their regular routine of hunting, painting, or just being together. His pictures should be preserved because of the fact that his pictures were the firsts to bring to life the life of the Native Americans to say that they were there and that they existed. Without them, some people might not know who they were, what their way of life was like, what they wore, and many other great reasons as to why the pictures should be preserved. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words or more and if you really stop to think about it, there are pictures of a persons' relative and if those pictures were not preserved, then how will their descendants know who they were because time has changed thing considerably?

However, as much as it is great that he wanted people to remember them, he did something extra. He had clothes and other props along with him and made the Natives wear them as they would wear what they usually wore. A person cannot just tell someone to dress the same way as them because it decreases the value of a human being. The pictures where he made them wear the props are a lie because they would not typically wear them in the day to day life; on the other hand, they are the truth when there are no props and the Natives are staring at the camera without a headdress or where they would just stand on a rock near or in the water (source: the ten-minute video). The same thing can be said about whether or not his photographs are an incomplete truth: with props-false; without props-a complete truth. I would like to believe that the pictures were fair to the Natives because they maybe wanted to have their pictures taken so that they could show future generations for them. Some of the pictures might not be accurate because of the props, but it does give an air about them saying that they did not mind because they let him. However, that is just an opinion because no one ever truly knows what a person might feel to dress up or not.

I think Edward Curtis should be remembered for his great deed of taking pictures of Native Americans so that we can see what their life was like just like we can see what the life of others. I think it will be safe to display his photographs that had no props in them but if they want to display the ones with props, they should ask the Natives since it is their heritage that was captured and dressed up. In today's society, as messy as it all is, people should be represented the way they want to be represented. If they want to be represented as being a professional dresser with khaki pants, a crisp white. or any other color, shirt, loafers, and a tie, then they should. Same if a person wants to look and be comfortable: sweat pants, baggy shirt, fuzzy socks or slippers or both, and a bag of whatever snacks. Those two sentences before this sentence are, I think the word I am looking for is an analogy, like to dress professionally could represent the religious people and dressing comfortably could represent people who like to stay at home. I know those three sentences are not really good, but that was the best analogy I could come up with because I do not want to unintentionally make anyone mad (and sorry in advance if it does, I honestly do not mean to be rude). We can learn from what he did right and wrong by representing people the way they want to be represented without dressing them up in something that is not them because we want to capture the essence of the being who they are and not what we think they are. Most importantly, we should let people choose what they want to wear if they get their pictures taken and get their permission before doing anything with the photographs so as to avoid any conflicts and ruin relations between people. 

(The picture in this section is a pic I printed off and taped to a spiral notebook to differentiate my notebooks from one another)