Crazy Horse: A Photographic Biography

Rating:
Summary: Good photographs, but not much of a biography
Review: Despite the obvious irony of a photographic biography of Crazy Horse-the man who eschewed the medium-Bill and Jan Moeller use a combination of photos and text, to re-tell his life story. They have compiled their own color photos, which comprise, not only pictures of battle sites and forts, but various landscapes on the Great Plains where Crazy Horse's people may have lived and traveled.

I enjoyed leafing through these beautiful photos of places I had been, and places I plan to visit. The Moellers have done a wonderful job of photographing striking landscapes, as with their photo of a rainbow arching over Scotts Bluff. (7) However, while this book works well as a themed photographic collection, as biography and history it falls short. It does not, as the authors hoped, "...add to the works on Crazy Horse and...provide the subject with an expanded dimension."(v) Instead they provide a very simplified and, by their own admission, biased version of Crazy Horse's life, which is more mythology than biography. Indeed, at times, the writing seems better suited to a young adult audience

I also found the photographs of battle sites rather disappointing. Not that they are not visually pleasing, like the markers on Custer Hill surrounded by golden grasses. (113) But the authors seem to favor the attractive landscape over views that enhance our understanding of what took place there. For example, at the site of the Wagon Box Fight, they chose to photograph the area just beyond the circle, where the hill begins to slope down. While this hill did figure prominently in the battle, a photograph of the wagon boxes, and the small area they enclosed would have given a much better idea of scale.

I was also disappointed in parts of the last chapter, "Life-and Death-at Camp Robinson." Included here, of course, are photos of the buildings that now stand on the site of the Guard House and Adjutant's Office, where Crazy Horse was wounded, and later died. The authors fail to mention, however, that these are not the original buildings, but reproductions, nor do they note that the original buildings looked somewhat different.

The Moeller's version of Crazy Horse's wounding is that, "Private William Gentles...lunged at Crazy Horse with his bayonet, plunging it deep into his right side."(139) Of course, there are as many versions of this event as there were eyewitnesses, and many say that Crazy Horse actually fell against the bayonet, making his wounding accidental. I would have preferred it if the Moellers had noted that there were other versions, and not stated theirs so definitively.

This is an attractive book for those who enjoy landscape photography or romantic images of the American West. However, those wishing for an expanded biography of Crazy Horse will find only a re-hash of the old myths.