Charles Leander Weed
Charles Leander Weed (* 1824 in New York , † 1903 in Oakland , California ) was an American landscape photographer .
Life
The California gold rush moved Weed to travel to the West Coast in 1854. He settled in San Francisco and worked for some time as an assistant to George J. Watson in his daguerreotype studio. Around 1855 he took over the collodion wet plate technique from Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray and modified it for his portrait photography .
It was through his work that Weed made the acquaintance of James Hutchings , who along with a few other businessmen were known to be the first tourists to visit Yosemite Valley. Enthusiastic about the beauty of the untouched nature, they worked - under Hutchings' leadership - to develop it; the result was the establishment of Yosemite National Park in 1864 .
In the summer of 1859, Weed came to Yosemite Valley with Hutchings and photographed it for the first time, and in September of that year he showed his photographs at an exhibition in San Francisco. The photographers George Fiske and Carleton Watkins also came to this valley during these years and took photos, but whether they also undertook a trip there together remains unproven.
From 1860 weed made extensive trips to Asia. For a short time he even had a studio in the British crown colony of Hong Kong and for several weeks he also traveled to the island of Hawaii . In 1867 he was invited to Paris to show his pictures at the world exhibition .
In 1872 he traveled to the Yosemite Valley again to take photos, possibly accompanied by Eadweard Muybridge . In the years that followed, Weed traveled less and less and settled in Oakland. In the following years he was more concerned with the artistic and technical improvement of photography.
literature
- Merry A. Foresta: American photographs. The first century . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC 1996, ISBN 1-560-98718-9 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Smithsonian American Art Museum , November 22, 1996 to April 20, 1997)
- James M. Hutchins (Ed.): Scenes of wonder and curiosity in California . Dodo Press, Gloucester, UK 2009, ISBN 978-1-4099-7122-1 (reprint of San Francisco 1862 edition).
Web links
- Charles L. Weed . In: Smithsonian American Art Museum .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Weed, Charles Leander |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American landscape photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1824 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1903 |
| Place of death | Oakland , California |