Quote o' the Day: Hin-mah-too-yah-la-kekt

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"I saw a lot of white men almost fight today. I do not think this is good."

—Hin-mah-too-yah-la-kekt (Thunder Rolling Down the Mountains), also known as Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perce tribe, after impassively watching a football game between the Universities of Washington and Nebraska in Seattle in 1903.

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Edward Curtis, Joseph of the Nez Perce

Got this gem from Tim Egan's biography Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis, which I'm thoroughly enjoying so far (I'm only on page 71). It's well written—briskly paced, evocative, almost poetic in places—and it seems to be a rich story capable of firing the imagination. I'm astonished at Curtis's energy—on the Harriman expedition to Alaska, he exposed five thousand glass plates, up to near mammoth size (can't find the reference now—I think it was 17x20 inches?). Almost inconceivably difficult. I don't know about you, but send me to Alaska today and I wouldn't take 5,000 exposures with a mirrorless digital.

By the way, Chief Joseph was unmoved by the football game except when they kicked the ball, which made him laugh. The great man died a year later, exiled still from his beloved homelands.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mark: "You clearly haven't been to Alaska. Five thousand exposures sounds easy to me. I didn't own a camera while I lived there for six months (a real tragedy), but I think I could hit that number on a two-week trip."

Mike replies: You're very right, I haven't been.

Lawrence Plummer: "Interesting. I had never heard the reference to the UW football game (go Huskies!). I have visited his gravesite in Nespelem, Washington, quite a few times for some photography:

Andrew Molitor: "A friend of mine has taken up wet plate in the last few years, and reports that 11x14 in a darkroom is fantastically difficult. Doing plates more than twice as big—in a tent in the wilderness makes his head hurt. He wailed, 'How do you keep the dust out?' and I could only speculate, 'Perhaps with the force of your indomitable will?'"

Derek L: "I'm with Mark...on a week long cruise a few years back, I took more than a thousand images without even particularly trying. That trip (and the Canon G10 that I bought for it) was what got me back into photography after a three decade hiatus.... Nowadays, I'd easily make two or three times as many images hunting for that elusive few. Alaska is an amazing place."

Comments

[Bron]

Read the book after your post about it; quite good. It even got me to look more at the work of Curtis, which I seem to have pointedly avoided.

Exceptionally hard worker, Curtis.

[Christopher Lane]

Thank you for drawing my attention to this. I have one book by Curtis, The Master Prints.

[Robert Roaldi]

5000 glass plates must heavy as hell.

[brad miller]

There is also a memorial to the great Chief near Joseph, Oregon. When I was there, people had left
dream catchers and other momentos. I believe he was a great man.

[robert]

its obvious, he bracketed:)

[Andreas]

The best QOT ever!

[Speed]

If the glass plates were 5" x 7" x 1/4", 5,000 of them would have weighed just short of 4,000 lbs.

[John Krumm]

Chief Joseph seems like he was one smart man, from what I remember, reading some of his speeches.

A local glass plate (wet) guy showed me a little of what he does. Amazing results from not nearly so Curtis-sized plates that when scanned and printed on a large inject look very detailed at several feet across (extra-large poster size). I imagine 17x20 had some resolving power. He's made a series of local portraits, mostly friends and people who stop by his shop...

http://www.ronkleinphotos.com/home.html

[Rob Young]

I confess to taking 5000+ images in Iceland in a 4 week period.

[RickF]

In the second hour of NPRs broadcast of "On Point" Curtis and his photographs are discussed: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/10/22/native-americans

I just caught a few minutes of the re-broadcast tonight and intend to listen to the whole story when I get a chance.