Struck by the dynamic character of a nineteenth-century Northwest Coast painted chest that he had walked past many times at the museum where he worked, Bill McLennan decided to photograph it for closer study. Infrared film produced surprising results. Painted areas that had been obscured with a patina of oils and soot could now be seen clearly, as the complete painting emerged from beneath the weathered surface. With this find, the Image Recovery Project was born, whose object was to develop a database of infrared photographs of historical Northwest Coast paintings.The Transforming Image brings together some of the most intriguing images, many revealed for the first time in over a hundred years. Karen Duffek's text adds new insights derived from the project's detective work, linking painted images to communities, histories, and the hands of individual painters.

Product Description: Bill Reid’s work has long been acknowledged for its astute and eloquent analysis of Haida tradition, and for the paradox of making modern art from the old Haida stories. It helped to make the so-called renaissance of Northwest Coast Native art visible to all...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: According to eminent French anthropologist Levi-Strauss, Reid "brought Northwest Coast art to the world scene, into dialogue with the whole of mankind." In this artistic biography, Karen Duffek gives an account of Bill Reid's life and work and of his role as artist, innovator, and ambassador of Haida art...read more