Carleton Watkins
Carleton Watkins , actually Carleton Eugene Watkins (born November 11, 1829 in Oneonta , New York , † June 23, 1916 in Napa , California ) was an American photographer .
Life
Lured by the California gold rush , Watkins came to San Francisco in 1851 . He traveled with the entrepreneur Collis P. Huntington , who later became the majority owner of the Central Pacific Railroad . As an amateur, Watkins has been enthusiastic about photography since his youth ; he only got professional interest through his work in the daguerreotype studio of Robert H. Vance in San Francisco. From 1861 he also worked as a photographer himself.
After first attempts, landscape photography became Watkins' great passion and remained so until the end of his life. He experimented a. a. with stereoscopy and it is said that his images of the Yosemite Valley convinced Congress to create Yosemite National Park . Together with the painter William Keith (1838–1911) Watkins traveled the wild west and - according to his own admission - was able to photograph America's past one last time.
In 1879 Watkins married his employee Frances Sneade (* 1857) in San Francisco and had two children with her.
In addition to landscape photography, the railroad was a big topic for Watkins. In this area he worked a. a. often together with Alfred A. Hart (1816–1908). In the later years of his life, his eyesight deteriorated; his last large series of pictures showed the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.
In 1910 he was admitted to Napa State Hospital and died there six years later at the age of 86.
literature
- Essays
- Martin A. Berger: Overexposed. Whiteness and the landscape photography of Carleton Watkins . In: The Oxford Art Journal , Vol. 26 (2003), Issue 1, pp. 1-24, ISSN 0142-6540
- Bill Berkson: The photographer. Traveling the American West . In: Art in America , Vol. 88 (2000), No. 4, pp. 120-127, ISSN 0004-3214
- Clara Cozzi: Carleton Watkins . In: Zoom / International , Vol. 42 (2001), pp. 68–73, ISSN 012-778 (?!?!)
- Exhibition catalogs
- Weston J. Naef (Ed.): Carleton Watkins in Yosemite . Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2008, ISBN 978-0-89236-945-4 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, October 4, 2008 to March 1, 2009).
- Amy Rule (Ed.): Carleton Watkins. Selected Texts and bibliography (World photographers reference series; Vol. 4). Clio Press, London 1993, ISBN 1-85109-193-9 .
- Margaret Stuffman (Eds.): Gustave Le Gray , Carleton E. Watkins. Landscape photography pioneers . Verlag H. Schmidt, Mainz 1993, ISBN 3-87439-302-X (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, February 2 to November 7, 1993).
- Monographs
- Merry A. Foresta: American photographs. The first century . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 1996, ISBN 1-56098-718-9 .
- Weston Naef (Ed.): Carleton Watkins. The complete mammoth photographs . Roundhouse Publ., Brighton 2011, ISBN 978-1-60606-005-6 .
- Douglas R. Nickel: Carleton Watkins. The art of perception . Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco 1999, ISBN 0-918471-51-6 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Watkins, Carleton |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Watkins, Carleton Eugene |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 11, 1829 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oneonta , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 23, 1916 |
| Place of death | Napa , California |