Product Details Paperback 104 pages Carl Mautz Publishing Published 1998 Thomas R. Kailbourn, Books for the Western Library, 2000
Gentile compiled an impressive record as an early Western Photographer.
Ernst Stadler, folio, 1999
...remarkable biography...
Mary Elizabeth Brown, Pace University for International Migration Review
The stars of the book...are the photographs.
Book Description
During the nineteenth century, wealthy travelers sometimes carried cameras to document their travels, resulting in an album or a small collection of photographs. Some, however, went on to become professional photographers. One wealthy young Italian, Carlo Gentile, was enthralled with the American West, first in Canada and then in the United States. He never returned to Italy but became a distinguished photographer in North America. His subjects ranged from the gold of British Columbia to remote adobe villages in the Arizona Territory. He captured both the Indians of the West and later, formal portraits of the rich and famous of New York and Chicago.
Even though Gentile associated with legendary figures such as Buffalo Bill Cody and Indian rights activist Carlos Montezuma, Gentile's adopted son, the details of his life and work have been obscure. Cesare Marino's extensive research has uncovered a wealth of material to form this fascinating story.
About the Author
Cesare Marino, Ph.D. in anthropology with a specialization in North American Indian ethnology and ethnohistory, is on the staff at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Publisher description
A young Italian, Carlo Gentile, was enthralled with the American West. Beginning in 1863 he traveled through the wilds of British Columbia where he photographed Pacific Coast Indians and gold mines, and mingled in elite society. After a stint as a studio photographer in California, Gentile migrated to the Southwest. On a trek through the Arizona Territory's Superstition Mountains, he chanced upon slave sellers after a massacre and bought a 4-year-old Indian boy for thirty silver dollars. Gentile adopted the boy as his son, and the boy grew up to be Carlos Montezuma, physician and Indian rights activist.
Gentile's strange path led to Chicago where he teamed up with Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show, and to New York where he produced formal portraits of the rich and famous. His life unfolds in a "tumult of joy and sorrow," from brilliant success and glamour to personal despair and a tragic end. This handsome volume is a tribute to Gentile's enterprising spirit and talent, and his unique contribution to photography and the American experience in the West. Illustrated with rare prints, maps, and portfolio.
"Cesare Marino's extensive research has not only uncovered a wealth of material, but he has placed the evidence before us in a fascinating story." DR. JEREMY ROWE, Author of Photographers in Arizona 1850 - 1920 |