Photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952) spent more than three decades documenting the lives, cultures, and traditions of Indigenous peoples across North America through photography. The Palm Springs Art Museum presents a wide-ranging retrospective, Edward S. Curtis: One Hundred Masterworks, featuring a remarkable selection of vintage prints from Curtis’s life work. His project culminated in an ambitious 20-volume, 20-portfolio set of handmade books that include more than 2,200 of his original images, offering an extensive visual record of a pivotal era in Native American history.
The exhibition runs through May 29 and is paired with Changing the Tone: Contemporary American Indian Photographers, a companion show that highlights the perspectives of living Native artists. This contemporary presentation features works that explore cultural identity, connections to the land, and portraiture by artists such as Gerald Clarke, Will Wilson, Kent Monkman, Nicholas Galanin, Shelley Niro, and Lewis de Soto. Together, the two exhibitions create a dialogue between historical and contemporary photographic practices and interpretations of Native life and representation.
The Palm Springs Art Museum, located at 101 Museum Drive in downtown Palm Springs, offers visitors an opportunity to engage with both Curtis’s historic images and modern responses to that legacy. The combined exhibitions provide context for ongoing conversations about cultural preservation, artistic practice, and the ethics of representation in photography.