Doorkijk op Yosemite Valley before 1886

Curator: Here we have a print titled “Doorkijk op Yosemite Valley” from before 1886 by George Fiske, specifically a gelatin silver print featured within a book. Editor: Wow. It feels...contained. The raw, untamed vista of Yosemite, mediated by text and bound. Almost like nature itself is being archived, like a pressed flower between pages. Does it still breathe? Curator: The composition, regardless, adheres to certain landscape conventions. Note the placement of the trees as framing devices and how that guides the viewer's eye toward El Capitan—or what I believe to be that majestic stone structure rising above the valley in the image. There’s a distinct play with depth using light and shadow too. Editor: Yes, the light—that diffused, almost reverent glow. It’s the light of Manifest Destiny painting Yosemite as this promised land, untouched and ready for the taking...except it *wasn't* untouched. This photo, existing within this book, echoes the layers of meaning and the uncomfortable relationship to that landscape. Curator: Indeed. The photographic technology of the time, while advanced, necessarily flattened the dynamic, tactile experience. That compression itself serves a semiotic function—distances collapsed and dramatized into a view. Editor: It makes me consider what we lose when we frame nature, contain it within pages. Though beautiful and stark, does it begin to obscure the complete history and stories layered into every inch of the valley? Curator: These points, as ever, invite layers of consideration about access and context—offering vital frameworks as we examine Fiske's piece today. Thank you for joining me. Editor: Thank *you*. It has left me with questions I wasn’t expecting!