Carleton E. Watkins 1829-1916 was a pioneering photographer of Americas West and he found international fame for his award winning photographs of Yosemite, San Francisco and the western states. The pictures he took give us a valuable insight into the West from the 1860 - 1890. All that survives are the original prints many stereoscopic views as his studio and negatives were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

This was after he went bankrupt after the financial crisis of 1875 and lost his studio and negatives to his creditors. Above are a selection of his prints exhibited at a fair or exposition circa 1865 of Yosemite mammoth plate photographs.

Title: Upper Yosemite Fall, 1600 ft. From Eagle Point Trail.

The image above is Watkins ‘New Series’ as this is the images he began taking after losing his images to his creditors and he set about replacing that which he lost.

I will never complain about the weight of my camera gear after reading about the amount of equipment Watkins had to take around with him. Watkins work is impressive in its scale and execution but does seem to me that he was recording the scene rather than photographers such as Adams who worked there some 60 years later creating art. I am not sure if this is however a fair comparison because of the difference in the equipment used. As well as the fact that the original negatives are not available for comparison. Watkins work however does not seem to me to have the depth and tonal range of Adams work six decades later.

I do struggle a little whilst viewing this very early photographic work as I do not have original prints in front of me and would love to see the quality they have been able to achieve. This early work is pioneering and even if the initial results do not excite me visually all the time I value the contribution made in leading the way to later photographers who have followed in their footsteps decades later. What does interest me is this glimpse into the past of a world gone by and the effort that these pioneering photographers put into capturing this work.

Bibliography -

http://www.carletonwatkins.org/