Territorial Photography

June 2015

Exercise 2.1 Territorial Photography

Read Snyder's essay and summarize the key points. Find and evaluate two photographs by any of the photographers Snyder mentions. Evaluate, reflecting on some of the key points that Snyder makes, as well as any other references.

Pre 1850 photographers were not competing with other mediums.  Photographers were from a privileged background and used the medium to record personal work. Audiences were small and there was no market for their work due to the cost of printing.

By the mid 1850's photographs were accepted as being a different form of art due to the "mechanical" nature of photographs. Contextually photography fitted in with industrialization. Attracted the middle classes who were able to develop the technology of printing and establish a "high finish and endless detail that consequently were thought to be precise, accurate and faithful to the objects or scenes they represented". (p175) Photography developed through new professionals and became gloss instead of matte and the tones were standardized to sepia.  Mass  production became the norm.

From the 1850's a commercial market developed for travel architecture and tourism. Small printing houses were set up to print and sell to tourists at or near to the geographic site as prints or albums. This was the beginning of commercialism.

Carelton Watkins (1829-1916)
In the 1860's, Watkins developed 20x24" negatives. He photographed places such as the Yosemite Park, Pacific Coast, Utah and Nevada. He set the standard for Commercial Landscape Photographers and was commissioned by California State Geological Survey for Mining and Lumbar Interests. He documented a "visual harmony between the land and new tokens of progress symbolized by the industrial landscape itself."(p187) He recorded the progress and change of landscape "by harmonising nature and industry"(p188) so that people felt they could develop a picturesque area. 

Timothy H O'Sullivan (1840-1882)
In contrast, O'Sullivan started his career as a war photographer documenting battlegrounds and was chosen by Clarence King, a geologist to explore the uncharted interior of the country. King refused military support for his venture, believing in new ways of working. During 1867-1874, O'Sullivan documented the inhospitable landscape during two expeditions; "Clarence King's Geological Explorations of the 40th Parallel and the Geographical and Geological Explorations West of the One Hundredth Meridian. His only brief was to "give a sense of the area" (p192) and his images were not included as evidence in the reports.

O'Sullivan's work was discovered by Ansel Adams who sent them to Beaumont Newhall, acting curator of photography at MOMA in New York who labelled them as prototypical modernist photographic landscapes.O'Sullivan portrayed the landscape as inhospitable, anti picturesque and sublime and not somewhere man would want to develop. If King sent images to the financiers of the project when requested, if the images were received as being inhospitable, King had complete control of the land.

Throughout the essay, I was reminded of the work in part 1 concerning photographers being photographers or art photographers. Watkins is a photographer and an O'Sullivan art photographer.

Carelton Watkins

Trestle on Central Pacific Rail Road 1880

This image was trimmed by Watkins to show the Chinese labourers and the Caucasian foreman working in the inhospitable landscape. The curve of the railroad linking the mountains to the foreground is elegant and leads the eye towards the back of the image. This shows man has tamed the land, transport will make places accessible and people would be encouraged to move to the area. Here Watkins has literally emphasized order of the environment. By using a completed foreground building and partially constructed railroad, reducing shadows and highlights, the mid tones do make the photograph easier on the eye. This image is balanced with the workers and reminiscent of his images of Yosemite. The left side looks untouched whilst the right side is busy with well spaced out carts. Watkins labelled this image himself as California Tourists Association.




Timothy H O'Sullivan

Southside of Insription Rock, New Mexico

O'Sullivan used a tight crop on this image giving the impression that the land surrounding this rock may have been inhospitable too. In choosing to photograph  this rock he was acknowledging that others had lived here too. There was a small amount of land visible in the image but not enough to colonize. This rock formation could be seen as a "monstrosity or grotesquerie". It is sublime in its grandeur, and does not conform to contemporary landscapes. If the viewer of the time looked at other photographs of the area, they would probably decide not to venture into this inhospitable land.









References
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201) p175, p177, p178, p192,

Bibliography
Mitchell WJT (ed) (2002) Landscape and Power, The University of Chicago Press (p175-201)
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/101195/carleton-watkins-trestle-on-central-pacific-railroad-american-negative-1877-print-about-1880/
http://www.carletonwatkins.org/index.php#
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/osullivan/index.cfm
http://petapixel.com/2013/09/02/amazing-19th-century-photographs-american-west-timothy-osullivan/