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[Tower Rock - North View] - Early photography, Public domain image

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[Tower Rock - North View] - Early photography, Public domain image

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Public domain photograph by Carleton Watkins, 19th-century photography, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Carleton Watkins was an American photographer, born in 1829 in Oneonta, New York. He is one of the most important American landscape photographers of the 19th century. He is known for his photographs of the American West, particularly California, which he began photographing in the late 1850s. He was one of the pioneering photographers of California and his photographs of Yosemite Valley, the California coastline, and the mining towns are some of the most important early photographs of the state. Watkins was one of the first photographers to use the wet-plate process. He was also a member of the San Francisco Art Association. He died in 1916.

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) was an American photographer best known for his photographs of the American West in the 19th century. Born in Oneonta, New York, he moved to California in 1849 during the Gold Rush. He worked as a carpenter and teamster before taking up photography in the early 1860s. Watkins is best known for his photographs of Yosemite Valley, which he first visited in 1861. His images of the valley helped popularise it as a tourist destination and played a key role in the creation of Yosemite National Park. Watkins also photographed other areas of the West, including the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and the mining towns of Nevada. Watkins' photographs were highly regarded for their technical excellence and artistic composition. He used large-format cameras and glass-plate negatives to produce detailed images of great depth and clarity. His work was exhibited internationally and won numerous awards. In later life Watkins suffered financial setbacks and lost much of his work in a fire. He died in poverty in 1916, but his legacy as one of America's greatest photographers lives on.

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1860
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Source

J. Paul Getty Museum
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Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.

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