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First Photographer of the American West
Carlton Watkins and the pioneering photographers of the virgin territories nurtured a desire to conserve the natural beauty of America’s majestic West
The painters and poets of the Romantic era had made the sublime beauty of natural landscapes attractive, creating an ever-increasing demand for fresh views of ‘untouched’ wild places. With the technological advances in photography and stereoscopy came the popularity of prints and stereograms, making them commercially viable — and a lucrative pursuit for adventurous photographers at the western frontier. It’s also a positive example of tech-led consumer demand driving creative innovation and resulting in profound real-world change…
When gold prospecting and mining opened up the Californian wilderness, Carlton Watkins was soon following in the pioneers’ footsteps to photograph the virgin territories. He may not have been the first to set eyes on these places, he was often following tracks mapped by fellow prospectors, but he was the first to really look at them and appreciate the compositional potential of their beauty. Many of the majestic places he photographed had yet to be named — so he did that, in order to title his pictures! This included the first photographs of Oneonta Gorge and Cascades (shown…
