In praise of Carleton Watkins

I had never heard of Carleton Watkins, before I read an article in the Guardian, titled 'Carleton Watkins and the photographs that saved Yosemite' the following passage was a surprise

'... the 30 images he captured of the valley's vertiginous ravines, cascading waterfalls and monumental trees had directly inspired Abraham Lincoln – more than 2,000 miles away in Washington DC and otherwise absorbed by the civil war – to sign the legislation needed to secure in perpetuity the wilderness "for public use, resort, and recreation"' 
Leo Hickman,The Guardian, 30th December 2011. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/dec/30/carleton-watkins-photographs-saved-yosemite

There are more images at the website http://carletonwatkins.org/ which has an extensive bio and image galleries, well worth a visit.

Carlton Watkins ~ 1872
http://www.charlesisaacs.com/artists/large.php/1/Watkins/3 copyright Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc

It is good to finally see Carleton Watkins given deserved recognition, maybe in years to come 'Carleton' or 'Watkins' will be dropped into conversations about actual masters of landscape photography instead. It is a common theme in landscape photography where truly talented photographers have long been unrecognised and instead the accolades have gone to lesser talents, but that is probably deserving of a separate blog post.