Bridal Veil, Yosemite

1865–66

Bridal Veil, Yosemite, 1865–66. Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829–1916). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 40.1 x 52.4 cm (15 13/16 x 20 5/8 in.); matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1992.12 The grand scale of the American West was difficult to convey in early photographs, which were intimately scaled objects meant for the hand and the album. Starting in the late 1850s, a handful of photographers shooting landscapes and historical settings began producing “mammoth” prints, including the San Francisco-based Carleton E. Watkins. The seemingly gargantuan scale of these prints allowed a new, immersive relationship between the viewer and the image, enhancing that “you are there” feeling. In the spring, Bridal Veil Falls drops a torrent of rushing water 620 feet down into the Yosemite Valley.