View from Camp Grove, Yosemite

Carleton Watkins was perhaps America's greatest landscape photographer. Watkins bypassed the conventional life of a studio practitioner, specializing instead in landscape work. His first trip to Yosemite, in 1861, resulted in a majestic series of 18 x 22-inch mammoth-plate views. These prints were widely acclaimed for both their technical perfection and their artistry. These images helped convince President Lincoln to ban development in the area, setting the stage for a national park system.