Cooley's Ranch, 10 miles east of Camp Apache, Arizona 1871

Editor: This is Timothy O'Sullivan's "Cooley's Ranch, 10 miles east of Camp Apache, Arizona," part of an expedition from 1873. It's a stereo card, so meant to be seen in 3D. The landscape feels vast but also somehow controlled. What do you see in it? Curator: Look closely. This isn't just landscape; it's a commodity. The very act of photographing the West, through the labor of transporting equipment and processing images, served the interests of expansion and resource extraction. Who benefits from these images? Editor: So you're saying even a seemingly objective landscape photo is tied to economic interests? Curator: Absolutely. Consider the material: the photograph itself, the paper, the chemicals. Each element represents a network of labor and resources. This "Cooley's Ranch" becomes less about nature, more about ownership. How does that shift your perspective? Editor: It makes me think about what isn't shown, the indigenous people, the exploitation of the land. It's definitely not a neutral image. Curator: Precisely! The photograph, as a material object, becomes evidence of a complex and often brutal process. Editor: I hadn’t considered it that way before. I’ll definitely be looking at photographs differently from now on.