Martha Sandweiss 1st Edition 1986 Laura Gilpin An Enduring Grace HC w/DJ

Laura Gilpin

An Enduring Grace

Martha A. Sandweiss

Hardcover. Published by Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, 1986. 336 pgs. Illustrated with tritone photographs. First Edition/First Printing.

Laura Gilpin (1891-1979) was a perfectionistic photographer. She would make several trips to capture a particular quality of sunlight on a mesa or a Navaho woman's face. Though she did not set out to document the Navahos' and Pueblos' endangered way of life, her sometimes romantic pictures of the American Southwest, its peoples and landscapes, form an enduring record of Indian culture, reflecting Native Americans' strong family ties and spiritual oneness with the land. Her photographs' formal perfection and deeply moving impact come through in 167 superb full-page reproductions in tritone, color and duotone. For decades Gilpin subsisted on commercial assignments while pursuing her craft and caring for the woman with whom she shared her life. Real success came only in the 1970s. This sumptuously produced biography photo study complements a Texas exhibition which will tour nationwide. As Sandweiss shows, Gilpin's personal circumstances, her wandering childhood, material scarcity, her family's ambiguous status in Colorado Springs help explain her deep identification with American Indians.