Carleton Watkins: Recent Acquisitions
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
May 2 - June 29, 2002
Fraenkel Gallery presents a group of remarkable recent acquisitions by the nineteenth-century photographer CARLETON WATKINS.
The exhibition includes an exceptionally rare four-part panorama of San Francisco, dated circa 1879. Carleton Watkins’ obsessively detailed images persuasively convey the visual texture of the rapidly expanding city. The exhibition also includes several mammoth-plate photographs from Watkins’ first trip to Yosemite in 1861, and a dramatic view of people on the ferry boat "Solano," as it readies to depart the dock in Pt. Costa, circa 1876.
Carleton Watkins is generally viewed as the most important American photographer of the nineteenth century. The images he produced helped shape Americans' understanding of the then-unfamiliar landscape of the American West, to such an extent that they contributed to the establishment of the national parks system. Watkins often hauled his cameras, tripods, darktents, glass plates and chemicals through difficult terrain and into treacherous situations, making exposures up to one hour long. What resulted were photographs of consummate craftsmanship that illuminated Watkins' passion for his subject and the particular intelligence he brought to it.
Carleton Watkins spent the majority of his working years in San Francisco. His "Yosemite Gallery", located on Montgomery Street, first presented his photographs of the West to the public. Much of his life's work, including all of his original glass negatives, was destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906.
FRAENKEL GALLERY
49 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
