View in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River 1872

Editor: This is William Bell's stereograph, "View in the Grand Cañon of the Colorado River." It's a pretty small print. It feels desolate, almost lunar, to me. What do you make of this view? Curator: Desolate, yes, but also… pregnant with possibility. Bell, working with the Wheeler expedition, was capturing the *idea* of the West as much as the reality. It's a landscape promising adventure, and also threatening hardship. Do you see how the two images create a sense of depth? Editor: I do now! It's so subtle! So, he's selling a dream, but documenting something real. Curator: Precisely! And perhaps even wrestling with its contradictions. Makes you wonder about the experience behind the image, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely. I'll never look at a landscape photograph the same way again.