Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) is considered by many to be the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century. During his career of some fifty years, Watkins traveled the western United States, making thousands of remarkable, historically important images. From pictures of Yosemite, the Pacific Coast, and the scenery along the Columbia River to photographs of the vast mining tracts of the Sierra Nevada and the towns springing up along the recently built Central and Southern Pacific railroads, these images provide an unparalleled visual record of the West.
Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception examines the signal achievement of this photographic innovator in the context of burgeoning western development and new ways of experiencing the world visually.
Produced using state-of-the-art tritone printing, it showcases over one hundred of the photographer's best images, including several of Watkins's extraordinary multi-part panoramic works. The photographs, many of which have never been exhibited or reproduced before, are accompanied by essays that are informed by substantial original research into Watkin's life and ambitions.

Maria Morris Hambourg is curator in charge of the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.