Printed by the photographer George Tice in 1973 for an unrealized project with Witkin Gallery, these eight photographs by the renowned western painter Joseph Henry Sharp give insight into his interest in and use of the medium. They were taken on the Crow Reservation in Montana, where he spent his summers and winters from 1902 through 1910, as well as in his studio in Taos, New Mexico.

An exhibition of Sharp's photography was held at the C.M. Russell Museum, and the press release for the show notes "While Sharp only used photography for reference, or as an aide memoire, to assist him with his paintings and etchings, it is clear that the medium became a primary tool for his visual and artistic eye. Sharp used his camera to lay the groundwork for his painterly compositions, actively posing his subjects and himself to capture magnetic portraits and scenes from everyday life."

Joseph Henry Sharp was an American painter best known for his work depicting the life of American Indians of the Taos Pueblos. Often referred to as the “Spiritual Father,” Sharp was one of the first artists to begin painting American Indian portraits and landscapes of the American West. Sharp also had a considerable photographic archive of prints, slides, and negatives that were used as references for his work which are held and exhibited by the CM Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana. The sum of his multifaceted career as a painter and historian has greatly contributed to the preservation and representation of Native Americans.

Born 1859 in Bridgeport, Ohio, Sharp was sent to art school after a near-fatal drowning that left him increasingly deaf. Sharp had a difficult adolescence when his father passed away when he was just 12 years old. He supported his family by working at metal factories. When he was 14 he moved to Cincinnati and studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before later enrolling in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium in 1881. From a young age, Sharp had a keen interest in the West. He made his first trip in 1883, touring New Mexico and the Washington Territory where he made his first portraits of Native Americans. It was not until 1893, after a decade studying in Europe, that he made his way to Taos for the first time for an assignment by Harper’s Weekly. He would return to paint the scenes and people of the West throughout his life. His work was well-received and found a home at the Smithsonian Institution and Sharp was commissioned by President Thedore Roosevelt to paint the Native Americans of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Sharp spent his time between teaching in Cincinnati, running his studio in Taos, and visiting Hawaii in the winters with his wife. Sharp died in 1953 in Pasadena, California.