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[Cypress Point, Monterey]

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: about 1880s
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Rooted above the rocky Monterey coastline, this elegant cypress tree clings to the edge of the cliff as decaying windblown branches lie all around it. Carleton Watkins chose to photograph Cypress Point while the thick fog characteristic of the Monterey peninsula engulfed the coastline. By doing so, he obstructed the view of the Pacific Ocean's glassy surface and allowed the fog to blend seamlessly into the gray sky. When Watkins took this photograph, scientists were already aware that this cypress species, *cuppressus macrocarpa* , was disappearing from its native habitat.

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