The First View of the Mine, View Looking South, New Almaden

Carleton Watkins was renowned for his majestic images of Yosemite, which he first visited in 1861, and for the unsurpassed artistry of his 18 x 22-inch mammoth-plate views. In addition to his studies of untouched nature, Watkins was employed to photograph various mining businesses in California. This photograph records the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine outside San Jose. This mine produced mercury, a primary reduction agent in the processing of gold and silver. Ever the artist, Watkins finds compelling visual form in this relatively mundane subject, creating an elegantly rhythmic composition and an exquisite sense of spatial recession.