Carelton Watkins: The Art of Perception - Softcover

Douglas R Nickel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0918471516 ISBN 13: 9780918471512

Publisher: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1999

Synopsis

Attractive oversized softcover with flaps. Issued by the San Francisco Museum of Art on occasion of 1999 exhibition, contains 105 tritone and 20 duotone photographs, 4 gatefolds.

About this title

Review:

Victorian landscape photographer Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) described his lifelong project in simple terms: to find "the best spot with the best view." However, this self-trained but precocious man, who seemed to delight in giving away much of the work he produced, is now considered one of the most gifted American photographers of the 19th century. Perhaps best known for his pictures of the then newly discovered scenic wonder Yosemite, Watkins made thousands of remarkable, sophisticated, and historically important images that provide an unparalleled visual record of the western United States. In his spectacular depictions of the West Coast's natural resources and the industrial outposts nested within them by way of the California Gold Rush and the Central and Southern Pacific Railroads, Watkins captured the sense of adventure and expansionist enthusiasm of the mid-1800s American imagination.

In the photo Sugar Loaf Islands, Farallons, the combination of grand scale and lush detail draws the viewer into an arresting image in which a single jagged rock emerges from a smoky mist. Only upon closer inspection does one discover that the shiny pebbles at its base are actually about a hundred glistening seals who loll along the beach of a mammoth island. Throughout his 50-year career, Watkins traveled tirelessly under adverse conditions to remote sites, often by mule. He carried cumbersome equipment, including his giant camera, which was custom-made by a cabinetmaker. And he secured his hard-earned images on fragile glass-plate negatives. Watkins's adventuring laid the groundwork for his pioneering in the nascent art and technique of photography. His work commanded wonder and respect from large audiences on both coasts, and the sheer beauty of his pictures helped set a national policy of scenic conservation that preceded the present system of national parks.

Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception is a companion volume to the first large-scale exhibition to look at this photographer's work from a critical, art-historical perspective. The show originates at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and travels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., through the year 2000. Produced using state-of-the-art tritone printing, this catalog includes 125 of Watkins's best images--stereo cards and multipart panoramic works among them. Accompanying the photographs are compelling and informative essays by Douglas Nickel, associate curator of photography at SFMOMA, and Maria Morris Hambourg, curator in charge of the Department of Photographs at the Met, as well as Peter E. Palmquist's notes on the plates, a list of selected references, and a chronology. --A.C. Smith

From the Publisher:

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) was perhaps the greatest American landscape photographer of the 19th century. His groundbreaking images of Yosemite, the Columbia River, and other natural wonders captured the grandeur of the American West for audiences around the world-and set an aesthetic standard rivaled only in the work of Ansel Adams many years later. This companion volume to a major traveling exhibition is the most beautiful book on Watkins' work ever published. Produced using state-of-the-art tritone printing, it showcases 105 of the photographer's exquisitely composed images, including four gatefolds presenting Watkins' astonishing panoramic photographs. The texts are informed by substantial new research into Watkins' life and work, offering a fresh perspective on his achievement. 105 photographs in tritone and 20 in duotone, 4 gatefolds, 1011/2 x 1111/2" Douglas R. Nickel is associate curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Maria Morris Hambourg is curator-in-charge of photography at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. David A. Ross is director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

About this edition

• Publisher: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0918471516
• ISBN 13: 9780918471512
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 228