Gezicht op Mount Lyell in Yosemite Valley, Californië before 1886

This photogravure of Mount Lyell in Yosemite Valley, California, exists within the pages of a book. The image, made by S.C. Walker, invites us to consider the complex relationship between landscape, representation, and cultural narrative. Yosemite, a site of immense natural beauty, also holds a history of displacement and conflict. The indigenous peoples who stewarded this land for centuries were systematically dispossessed as settlers and tourists flocked to the region. Walker’s image captures the grandeur of the landscape, but it also obscures the history of violence and erasure that made its visual consumption possible. The photograph and accompanying text romanticize the mountain. Consider how such representations have shaped our understanding of nature and wilderness. Who is included, and who is excluded, from this vision of the American landscape? What stories remain untold?