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[The Ferryboat "Solano"]

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: after 1879
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

The camera angle from Carleton Watkins's position atop a hillside produced a dynamic image with extreme diagonals and numerous triangles. Watkins took this picture at Port Costa off San Pablo Bay, the terminal where transcontinental trains arrived from the east. There, passengers bound for San Francisco transferred from trains to ferry boats for the final leg of their trip. The smoke billowing forth from both the train and the ferry suggest that they have either recently arrived or are about to depart.

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