Twin Redwoods, Palo Alto 1870

Curator: This is Carleton Watkins' gelatin-silver print, "Twin Redwoods, Palo Alto," taken around 1870. What's your immediate impression? Editor: I feel a sort of melancholy majesty, a gentle sorrow. Those towering redwoods...they’ve seen so much, haven't they? And the railway seems to point forward. Curator: Watkins made this as part of his larger project documenting the American West, often focusing on landscapes to showcase their sublimity. The image carries that Hudson River School influence but also the encroaching development from industrialization. Editor: Yeah, there's the nature as cathedral aspect. It's like he's thinking about the past and future together, and the railroad's there with an eye toward what the settlers thought was progress, barreling down the line. Curator: The placement of the redwoods, twinned in their height and proximity, invokes considerations around nature, human progress, and even the intertwined destinies of different groups in California at the time. There is an almost voyeuristic component as you seem to witness something quiet and old. Editor: It's got that classic Victorian sense of reverence for nature while simultaneously setting the stage for its undoing. This pre-color print, you can smell the pines, even almost hear the distant whistle of the train. It brings up questions about what we prioritize as a society, what we leave behind in pursuit of the shiny new. Curator: Absolutely. Watkins straddles that complex intersection of celebrating natural grandeur while implicitly documenting the early stages of its potential destruction. There's that inherent tension. Editor: Right. And even the twin redwoods themselves...are they together for comfort, for survival, or are they competing for the same sunlight? All in one frame here and one gets this melancholy truth as well. This will be gone someday... Curator: Thank you. Considering that complicated positioning can enable us to grapple with critical, still pertinent concerns. Editor: Exactly. That little tinge of regret woven into such beautiful and ambitious work—Watkins has that mastered in my eyes.