Getty Museum

Multnomah Falls, Columbia River, Oregon / [Multnomah Falls, Side]

Date

negative 1867; print 1881–1885

Medium

Albumen silver print

Culture

American

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

At the base of the Columbia River Gorge adjacent to the lower falls, Carleton Watkins positioned his 18 x 22-inch camera so that the lens tilted upward. In so doing, he accommodated both the upper and lower falls, the intriguing trunks of various trees, and the face of the gorge itself. The trees on the right seem to tilt as a result of the camera angle he used. Unlike many of the photographs Watkins took on his 1867 expedition to Oregon, his images of Multnomah Falls contain no sky, no negative space. Surrounded by dense forest, simply finding a good viewpoint of the cascades proved difficult.

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