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Carleton Watkins |
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Simeon G. Reed of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company (1867) Stream with trees and mountains in background, Yosemite Valley Stream and trees with Cathedral Rock in background, Yosemite |
Born in Oneonta, New York, Carleton Watkins’ own personal history began in the same fertile river valley made famous by Thomas Cole’s paintings. Like many other Easterners, Watkins’ westward migration was sparked by the promise of wealth presented by the discovery of gold in California. Watkins left home along with several other Oneontans (most notably future railroad magnate and patron Collis P. Huntington) to seek his fortune in the West. Watkins joined forces with another Oneontan, George Murray, working in his San Francisco bookstore until 1854, when photographer Robert Vance hired him to fill in for the sudden departure his daguerreotypist. While the arrangement was originally meant to be temporary, Watkins managed to learn enough to gain some marketable skills that led to a more permanent position. Watkins is perhaps best known for his "mammoth" (18"x22") prints of Yosemite, although his career also includes extensive surveys of the growth of San Francisco, Oregon and Washington. Watkins' undocumented relationship with the Central Pacific railroad colors much of his work, creating an interesting tension between natural beauty and economic development. Perhaps nowhere are the early tensions amongst the competing attitudes toward Western landscape portrayed more vividly than in Watkins’ photography, as they detail the maturation not only of photographic representation as art, evidence and commerce but of the conflict between the social and physical composition of American West. |