Buttermilk Creek Ithaca Cascades and 4t Fall looking down 1860 - 1865

J.C. Burritt created this stereograph of Buttermilk Creek, Ithaca, using photographic techniques that were still relatively new. A stereograph is a double photograph mounted on card stock. When viewed through a special device, the image appears three-dimensional. Think of it as an early version of virtual reality! This one shows a cascade in upstate New York, likely intended as a souvenir for tourists visiting the region. The making of photographs like this was enabled by advances in chemistry and optics. The final print is the result of a complex industrial process, involving not just the photographer, but manufacturers of cameras, lenses, and printing paper, as well as the distributors who got these images into the hands of consumers. So, while the image shows a pristine natural landscape, it’s equally a product of technological and commercial systems. This is true of photography in general: the ‘naturalness’ of the image belies the very unnatural processes required to make it.