View on the Merced, Yosemite

Carleton Watkins distinguished himself as a landscape photographer through his majestic views of Yosemite in central California. This photograph shows a picturesque stretch of the Merced River. Assistants and pack mules helped lug Watkins’s enormous camera, glass plates, a darkroom tent, and processing equipment up and down the valley. His wet-plate collodion method had many potential pitfalls, and the unpredictability of wind and weather made the process risky. Still, Watkins produced prints of astonishing technical clarity and artistic nuance.