Richard Evans Schultes

Kamsa Youth with the Blossom of Culebra Borrachera, Sibundoy, June, 1953. Copyright © Richard Evans Schultes. All Rights Reserved.

Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was probably the greatest explorer of the Amazon, and regarded among anthropologists and seekers alike as the “father of ethnobotany.” Taking what was meant to be a short leave from Harvard in 1941, he surveyed the Amazon basin almost continuously for twelve years, during which time he lived among two dozen different Indian tribes, mapped rivers, secretly sought sources of rubber for the US government during WWII, and collected and classified 30,000 botanical specimens, including 2,000 new medicinal plants. Schultes chronicled his stay there in hundreds of remarkable photographs of the tribes and the land, evocative of the great documentary photographers such as Edward Sheriff Curtis.

Richard Evans Schultes photographs are available in limited edition estate-stamped prints through Govinda Gallery.

Exhibit Photo Gallery. Click on an image to launch slideshow.

A fully illustrated catalogue, The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes (Chronicle Books, 2005) is available through Govinda Gallery.

The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Scultes by Wade Davis, Foreword by Andrew Weil, M.D., Afterword by Chris Murray (Chronicle Books, 2005).

Schultes and four Makuna boys taking shelter from a rainstorm in the cracks of a cliff in the falls at Yayacopi, Rio Apaporis. On the back of this photograph Schultes wrote “Rock of ages cleft for me.” February, 1952. Copyright © Richard Evans Schultes. All Rights Reserved.

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  • NPR – June 18th, 2008
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