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Masks from North America: From the Edward S. Curtis Collection

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:40:25 -0700

By the time of Edward S. Curtis' death in 1952, his documentation of North American Indians had fallen into obscurity. We're grateful that this amazing body of ethnographic work shortly thereafter returned into public awareness. Nowadays a lot of Curtis work is freely available online, through The Edward S. Curtis Collection at the Library of Congress, an archive which consists of more than 2,400 silver-gelatin photographic prints.

We have spent some time looking through the collection, and picked out a few photos which are currently our favorites. From these we have selected the ones showing different examples of masks, because -- as William Butler Yeats pointed out in 1910 -- mask are just so damn cool:

It was the mask engaged your mind,
And after set your heart to beat,
Not what's behind.

These are wonderful, captivating images. Enjoy a stroll through our gallery, and see for yourself.

Hot Rod Kulture Culture: Pinhole Polaroids, 2003 - 2010

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:40:25 -0700

"A good thing about Polaroids," artist and photographer Jack Butler says, "is that you take the picture and it's ready right away, so you can use the photo to initiate a conversation with your subjects."

Butler has photographed the hot rod culture of Southern California since 2003 using a Polaroid loaded pinhole camera. We have put together a gallery with selections from this unique documentation project. Click here to check it out.

Abstract Leanings: The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams

Tue, 04 May 2010 04:03:25 -0700

Through courtesy of the artist, and as part of our research on "Car Customizing & Outlaw Aesthetics," we've put together a little gallery of some of Robt. Williams' automobile related oil paintings. With a distinct bouquet of gasoline fumes and burnt rubber, these images will chase you down like ethnographic hallucinations, vibrantly artistic, generously fantastic. We think you might dig!

Southern California lowriders

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:37:25 -0700

Back in 2005, while doing fieldwork among lowriders in the southwestern states of USA, American Ethnography's owner and editor Martin Hoyem photographed the people he met and their cars. Now, as part of our ongoing research on "Car Customizing and Outlaw Aesthetics" we give you a gallery of photos from that fieldwork.

Bajito y Suavecito

Mon, 5 Apr 2010 23:54:46 -0700

As we rev up the engine, getting ready for a long haul of automobile related material, the first item off the "Car Customizing & Outlaw Aesthetics" desk is a gallery of New Mexico lowriders by photographer Jack Parsons. Jack is the grandson of pioneering anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons, and says he has "a soft spot for cultural anthropology."

American Ethnography remodeled

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:58:24 -0700

We have launched the remodeled version of American Ethnography, now a Quasiweekly: You can click here to go see it!