Alone With The Past: The Life And Photographic Art Of Roland W. Reed

Alone with the Past: The life and photographic art of Roland W. Reed

ROLAND REED'S decision came at the last possible moment. By the dawn of the twentieth century, this country's Native Americans were living on reservations, their old ways of life unalterably changed. Royal W. (Roland) Reed, Jr. (1864-1934) was one of a small number of professional photographers now known as Pictorialists who set out to document this "vanishing" race. Employing new artistic techniques and often posing their subjects, the Pictorialists recreated the "noble savage" as they imagined them to have been in the past, not as they presently found them. Reed's better known contemporary, Edward Curtis, enjoyed broad backing and financial support for his work. Reed did not; his work was solitary, self-directed, and self-funded. Critics agree that Reed's photographs are equal, both technically and artistically, to those of Curtis, but his work has remained largely unknown and unpublished.Reed lived with and photographed the Ojibwe in Minnesota; the Blackfeet, Piegan, Flathead, Cheyenne, and Blood in northern Montana and southern Canada; and the Navajo and Hopi in Arizona. He had begun work on the publication of his collection with the title Reed's Photographic Art Studies of the North American Indian at the time of his accidental death. This unfinished work is the genesis for ALONE WITH THE PAST, which realizes Roland Reed's dream.From the Inside FlapROLAND REED'S decision came at the last possible moment. By the dawn of the twentieth century, this country's Native Americans were living on reservations, their old ways of life unalterably changed. Royal W. (Roland) Reed, Jr. (1864-1934) was one of a small number of professional photographers now known as Pictorialists who set out to document this vanishing" race. Employing new artistic techniques and often posing their subjects, the Pictorialists recreated the "noble savage" as they imagined them to have been in the past, not as they presently found them. Reed's better known contemporary, Edward Curtis, enjoyed broad backing and financial support for his work. Reed did not; his work was solitary, self-directed, and self-funded. Critics agree that Reed's photographs are equal, both technically and artistically, to those of Curtis, but his work has remained largely unknown and unpublished. Reed lived with and photographed the Ojibwe in Minnesota; the Blackfoot, Piegan, Flathead, Cheyenne, and Blood in northern Montana and southern Canada; and the Navajo and Hopi in Arizona. He had begun work on the publication of his collection with the title Reed's Photographic Art Studies of the North American Indian at the time of his accidental death. This unfinished work is the genesis for ALONE WITH THE PAST, which realizes Roland Reed's dream.About the AuthorErnie Lawrence has had a lifelong interest in history, the American West, and photography. Prior to his retirement as a business executive, he spent more than twenty-five years as either CEO or COO of a number of different private-equity funded public and private businesses in a variety of industries. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where he teaches graduate courses in Change Management.Ernie holds a BA in English from St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, an MBA from the University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, and is a former Officer in the United States Army. He and his wife Jan have three grown daughters and six grandchildren and currently live in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.