Black Canyon 1871

Timothy O'Sullivan made this photograph, titled 'Black Canyon,' using a wet plate collodion process. It’s a beautiful print, where a glass plate negative is coated with chemicals, exposed in the camera while still wet, and then developed. The technical skill involved is intense. Each plate had to be prepared just before exposure, and processed immediately after, making photography a very physical and immediate endeavor. Look at the subtle tonal range here, that's achieved through the precise control of the chemical process. O’Sullivan wasn’t just making a pretty picture, he was working for the U.S. Geological Exploration, documenting the American West. The material of the photograph itself— the silver, the glass, the chemicals— are tied to the ambition of resource extraction. It’s no accident that photography took off alongside the expansion of industrial capitalism. So, when you look at this seemingly straightforward image of a canyon, remember the complex layers of labor, science, and ambition that are baked right into its making.