Carleton Watkins: 10 works

'In nature, where changes can occur in seconds or centuries, Carleton Watkins found the perfect subjects to convey a theme of transience versus permanence.'

'The narrow foreground strip reveals that Carleton Watkins's camera was mere feet from the edge of Inspiration Point, giving the viewer a solid sense of being there, literally on the edge.'

'Carleton Watkins's guide into Yosemite Valley, Galen Clark, stands at the thirty-three foot wide base of a sequoia tree known as "the grizzly giant," legitimizing the larger-than-life tales of the western wilderness.'

'Watkins was a San Francisco-based photographer who also chose the railroad as a primary subject. Because Hart's negatives belonged to the Central Pacific Railroad, they were subsequently printed by other company photographers who, like Watkins, failed to properly credit Hart.'

'Though Hart made this stereograph, its mount bears Carleton E. Watkins's name. Watkins was a San Francisco-based photographer who also chose the railroad as a primary subject.'

'In this highly detailed overview, Carleton Watkins looked down upon a hydraulic mining operation and recorded the early intrusion of industry upon the landscape.'

'This photograph, made on Watkins's second trip to the valley, was taken from Mariposa Trail at a location today known as Old Inspiration Point, nearly 3,000 vertical feet above Yosemite Valley, from which he felt "the view looked best."'

'Watkins likely traveled aboard this train, which was clearly posed for the photograph.'

'In this view of the Yosemite Valley, Carleton Watkins masked the finished print into a circle as a means of conveying a deeper feeling of perspective. "More of an artist than a businessman," Watkins lost most of the negatives he had created over a twenty-year period to a competitor after a lawsuit in the mid-1860s.'

'In a letter to a friend, Carlton Watkins expressed feelings of pride about the landscape images he took following his 1876 lawsuit and subsequent bankruptcy: "Everybody says (the new photographs) are better, softer, more artistic, etc." After twenty years as a photographer, his mature aesthetic and technical skills seem to have provided Watkins with a sense of confidence, encouraging more experimental approaches to his work.'