The Lake at the Foot of Half Dome 1861

Editor: So this is Carleton Watkins’s "The Lake at the Foot of Half Dome," a gelatin-silver print from 1861. It's gorgeous but has such a melancholic feel to it. I'm struck by how detailed everything is. What catches your eye when you look at this photograph? Curator: I'm immediately drawn to the labor embedded in this image. Consider the sheer difficulty of transporting the equipment necessary for wet plate photography to a remote location like Yosemite in 1861. It speaks volumes about the cultural imperative to document and, in essence, claim the American West through image production. Editor: That's a fascinating point. I hadn’t considered the sheer effort involved beyond the artistic skill. Curator: Exactly! The materiality of the gelatin-silver print itself also warrants consideration. Gelatin, derived from animal collagen, becomes a crucial ingredient in capturing this landscape. It binds together nature, labor, and early industrial processes. How does this material knowledge alter your reading of the photograph? Editor: It gives me a greater understanding of Watkins' technical prowess. It also makes me consider the consumer market for such images, not just as art, but as documentation to drive settlement and investment in the West. Curator: Precisely! The photograph served as both art object and propaganda, mediating the relationship between eastern capital and western expansion. This interweaving of aesthetics and industry becomes central to our understanding of landscape photography. Editor: This makes me think about site-specificity and landscape as commodity and how the act of making photographs transforms our sense of place. Thank you for the insightful analysis of materials, labor, and consumption!