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[Among The Tree Tops Calaveras Grove]

Creator

American Photographer · 1829–1916

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At twenty, Carleton Watkins headed out to California to make his fortune. After working as a daguerreotype operator in San Jose, he established his own practice and soon made his first visit to the Yosemite Valley. There he made thirty mammoth plate and one hundred stereograph views that were among the first photographs of Yosemite seen in the East. Partly on the strength of Watkins's photographs,

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Date: negative about 1878; print 1880–1890
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Unlike today's tripods, which permit multiple angles, those of Carleton Watkins's day allowed only limited maneuverability. The radical perspective employed when he photographed these treetops required placing the camera on its back after the plate was coated and fitted into place. By masking the corners of this image, Watkins amplified the tree trunks and emphasized their organic character. As Watkins's career progressed, he developed more experimental ways to take photographs. His New Series, images taken after 1876, reflected the technical and aesthetic growth that took place in the fifteen or so years that elapsed since he began as a daguerreotype operator.

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