[Yosemite National Park, California] 1876 - 1880

Carleton Watkins made this circular photograph of Yosemite National Park in California using a wet collodion process. Watkins, working in the mid-19th century, found himself amidst complex narratives of expansion and displacement. His stunning landscape images, while celebrating the sublime beauty of the American West, also contributed to the romanticized vision that fueled westward expansion. This expansion, of course, came at a tremendous cost to indigenous populations, whose ancestral lands were being encroached upon and irrevocably altered. Watkins' photographs, therefore, exist in a complicated space, simultaneously capturing the awe-inspiring grandeur of nature and obscuring the narratives of dispossession. It's a reminder that even the most beautiful images can be entangled in histories of power and inequality. What does it mean to bear witness to such beauty, knowing the full context of its making?