And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better—cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?---Fyodor Dostoevsky ---Notes from Underground There are certain people of whom it is difficult to say anything which will at once throw them into relief—in other words, describe them graphically in their typical characteristics. These are they who are generally known as “commonplace people,” and this class comprises, of course, the immense majority of mankind. Authors, as a rule, attempt to select and portray types rarely met with in their entirety, but these types are nevertheless more real than real life itself. For instance, when the whole essence of an ordinary person’s nature lies in his perpetual and unchangeable commonplaceness; and when in spite of all his endeavours to do something out of the common, this person ends, eventually, by remaining in his unbroken line of routine—. I think such an individual really does become a type of hi

Commissioned by JP Morgan he planned to capture and document what he thought was “The Vanishing Indian”. Guided by this concept, Curtis took over 40,000 images from over 80 tribes and made 10,000 wax cylinder recordings of Indian languages and music. His ethnographies recorded tribal histories as well as described ceremonies, tribal population and customs, foods, clothing and games. In 1930 The North American Indian was published comprising twenty volumes of writing and more than 2,200 sepia toned photographs. After investing decades of his life and his finances in the project, less than 300 copies were sold. Curtis was left bankrupt and divorced and passed away on Oct 19, 1952—his work virtually unknown.