A powerful and atmospheric original toned silver print by Edward S. Curtis, titled The Invocation, copyright dated 1907 and bearing the photographer’s signature boldly in ink at the lower right. Printed on richly textured paper with a wide margin, this large-format example measures approximately 17 x 14 inches and presents the Oglala Sioux subject in full ceremonial pose, bare-chested, with his right arm extended skyward and a long-stemmed pipe in hand. His eyes are closed in an expression of reverence or spiritual focus, as he stands barefoot on an elevated outcrop with a folded buffalo robe, pipe bag, and medicine bundle at his feet. The backdrop is a distant, softly rendered hill range, creating an almost sacred stillness and sense of solitary communion.

The image is plate number 509-07 in Curtis’s monumental body of work, and examples of this photograph are held in major institutional collections, including the Library of Congress. This particular print displays tonal warmth and dimensionality characteristic of Curtis’s early 20th-century paper prints and would have likely been produced in his studio in Seattle during or shortly after his Plains fieldwork. A stirring and iconic image from Curtis’s The North American Indian project, exemplifying both his aesthetic eye and anthropological ambition.