Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
View Artist Biography SOLD
Title:
Plate 061 Mosa - Mohave
Size:
Portfolio, 22 x 18 inches
Medium:
Vintage Photogravure
“It would be difficult to conceive of a more aboriginal than this Mohave girl. Her eyes are those of the fawn of the forest, questioning the strange things of civilization upon which it gazes for the first time. She is such a type as Father Garces may have viewed on his journey through the Mohave country in 1776.”
The Mohave tribe was one of the most primitive; from their method of hunting, to lack of curiosity to see past where they lived, “along the backs of the Colorado river, an environment into which they have so fitted themselves that they seem to have been always a vital part of it. To describe the Mohave without first speaking of their river would be like telling of the Makah of wind-swept Cape Flattery without alluding to the sea that beats the sands at their very feet.”
This quiet, simple life shows on the face of Mosa – there is no cynicism, or defiance. There is only the look of a young girl who is looking into Curtis' lens with the emotion and power that the photographer captured beautifully.
The Mohave tribe was one of the most primitive; from their method of hunting, to lack of curiosity to see past where they lived, “along the backs of the Colorado river, an environment into which they have so fitted themselves that they seem to have been always a vital part of it. To describe the Mohave without first speaking of their river would be like telling of the Makah of wind-swept Cape Flattery without alluding to the sea that beats the sands at their very feet.”
This quiet, simple life shows on the face of Mosa – there is no cynicism, or defiance. There is only the look of a young girl who is looking into Curtis' lens with the emotion and power that the photographer captured beautifully.