Masters of Photography - Carleton Watkins

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916) is considered a master photographer for his work documenting nature with stereoscopic cameras and mammoth glass plates. His work convinced Congress to pass a bill to name Yosemite as a national park, protecting Yosemite Valley from land developers. He was also among the first photographers to document the American West, moving to California in the middle of the 19th century gold rush. Watkins took photos up and down the West Coast, although staying mainly in California, from the mid 1850's to the early 1890's.

Initially, I chose Carleton Watkins because I liked how his photos portrayed the beauty of undisturbed nature. I was inspired by Carleton Watkins to understand what stereoscopic photography is. Stereoscopic views are a pair of photos of the same object that are taken from slightly different angles. When theses two photos are viewed together, they give the impression that the subject of the photos is 3D. Later in the project, I discovered that Watkins also emphasized the angle at which we view objects. which is partly the reason why he made stereoviews.


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This photo was inspired by Watkins's photo of a box of peaches. I didn't have that many peaches, but what I did have was a persimmon tree, so I substituted persimmons for peaches in this photo.
For edits, I had to crop out the box first, and then I made it black and white. I had to change shadows, vibrance, and blacks to -100. I also edited the clarity and highlights to +100 to make the lines between the persimmons sharper, to match the original photo by Watkins.


Watkins Photo of Peaches

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Watkins's stereoscopic photos of Chy Lung was taken in San Francisco. I took these photos of a building I saw in New Orleans. I edited my photos to make them black and white by changing saturation and vibrance to -100, contrast to -70, and blacks to -50.
Watkins Photo of Chy Lung & Co