[Yosemite National Park, California] 1876 - 1880

Carleton Watkins made this albumen print of Yosemite National Park in California sometime in the late 19th century. Watkins' photographs were instrumental in convincing Congress to designate Yosemite as a national park in 1864, a landmark moment in conservation history. But let’s consider what this act of conservation truly meant. Watkins' sublime images presented an idea of untouched wilderness which erases the history of the Ahwahnechee people, who were the original inhabitants of the valley for thousands of years. This photograph, with its idyllic scene of a building nestled in the landscape, presents a complicated view of progress and preservation. It invites us to reflect on whose stories are told and whose are overlooked in the narratives we construct about our relationship with nature. What does it mean to claim and protect a landscape that was never truly empty?