Collection: Carleton Watkins

Carleton Watkins  (1829–1916) is considered one of the greatest photographers of the American West. Traveling the western United States, he made thousands of mammoth and imperial plate photographs of the Yosemite Valley, Columbia River, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific Coast in Oregon. His pictures of Yosemite Valley served an essential role in Congress’ establishing Yosemite as a National Park in 1864. Watkins’ photographs of the West remain as important historical documents of the landscape, showing a moment before the onslaught of massive development. - Fraenkel Gallery