Photographs

Curtis’s intention of staging the Native Americans like he did was to supposedly help other people understand them. In all reality, he just staged them in the way that Americans thought of the Native Americans. One reason he produced these photographs was because he was interested photography and Native Americans. Curtis staged the Native Americans too much. It has been said that some of them aren’t in their native environments. The families are portrayed in some of them also. One reason he photographed the Native Americans was for his contract with J.P. Morgan. I don’t think he would have produced 19 volumes of posed Native Americans if it weren’t for the prospective money looming over his head. Neidich’s work, from what I saw in the book, was much more geared toward making the Native Americans look savage. There were pictures of a man with a knife to his throat and pictures of men falling off horses. Neidich also tried to make his photos look old but making them sepia toned and grainy. I think his agenda was more to contradict photos like Curtis’s than to make a living taking photos of Native Americans. Neidich’s photos definitely remind me of photos and paintings that I would see in my old history books. I personally prefer Neidich’s work because he didn’t only focus on Native Americans. He photographs other things that interest him.