Conway Valley, Horse Shoe, and Mote Mountain, from Artist's Clearing, Peaked Mountain 1854

Editor: This is "Conway Valley, Horse Shoe, and Mote Mountain, from Artist's Clearing, Peaked Mountain" by John Adams Whipple. It seems like a really early photograph. What stands out to you about this image? Curator: It's interesting to consider the context. Photography, even landscape photography, wasn't neutral. The romantic depiction of the American landscape often masked dispossession and colonization. Editor: How so? Curator: Images like these, while seemingly celebrating nature's grandeur, often served to erase Indigenous presence and justify westward expansion. It's a visual claiming of territory. Editor: I never thought of landscape photography that way. It gives me a new way to look at these early photographs. Curator: Exactly. By understanding the historical context, we can critically engage with the aesthetics.