In the Yosemite Valley 1876 - 1880

Curator: Ah, here we have "In the Yosemite Valley," a captivating albumen print by Carleton Watkins, created sometime between 1876 and 1880. The photograph is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection. Editor: Immediately, I feel this incredible sense of stillness, like holding my breath. The sepia tones are soft, the oval framing focuses my attention down this little path that winds through the trees… I'm itching to wander! Curator: Watkins truly had an eye for capturing the sublime. In this image, it’s almost as if we are invited to walk into another world. As part of the Hudson River School's influence, artists depicted vast landscapes in minute detail. Watkins helped transform public imagination surrounding the American West through the lens of expansion. Editor: It’s interesting that you mention the Hudson River School influence. When I see this, though, I consider the fraught concept of manifest destiny. The way Watkins composes this pathway—framing a wilderness tamed, ready for development… were these artists thinking of the Indigenous people who already lived there? Curator: That’s a necessary and sharp observation. Watkins’s photographs, beautiful as they are, also participate in a complex history of colonization and resource extraction, where romanticism serves a powerful ideological purpose. This wasn't necessarily his intention, I suppose, but is something we can bring to the art piece now. Editor: I see this photograph now less as a simple vista, and more as an archive of a rapidly shifting relationship between humanity and nature in the 19th century. There’s this tension between preservation and exploitation woven into the image's very fibers. Curator: You're so right. Seeing this image today prompts us to reflect on what has been gained and what has been lost, especially given our contemporary reckoning with climate change and social justice. It’s gorgeous but loaded. Editor: Absolutely. Watkins gives us beauty, yes, but also responsibility. Let us not simply gaze in admiration but critically reflect on the path laid out before us.