Eadweard Muybridge, Cathedral Rocks.—Valley of the Yosemite, 1872. Courtesy of the American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Libraries
The first thing you see in the landscape in front of you is the silence that abounds within it. There is a calmness, a serenity that escapes most of us in our way-too-busy, too-much-technology lives.
Yet “Photographing Nature’s Cathedrals: Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and H.H. Bennett,” on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum, exhibits some of the most cutting-edge technology of its times—the mid 19th century to be exact. Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge and Henry Hamilton Bennett individually changed the landscape, literally and figuratively, of the American West and Wisconsin Dells through their use of innovative photography techniques.
MAM has put together a well-curated exhibit which highlights the artists’ works as competitors as well as influencers on one another’s photographs. Strolling through the exhibit is like floating on a meandering river seen in these sepia-toned photos. And it can be a relaxing respite from the rapid pace of the world waiting back outside for us.
The exhibit begins with Watkins, whose love for the beauty of the American landscape emanates from works such as Half Dome at Glacier Point which showcase the majestic interplay of light and shadow within the jagged rocks and dark depths through the use of mammoth-size photographs. His work was groundbreaking in the 1860s when photography was not even considered art. Watkins’ photographs exposed people to what is now called the Yosemite Valley and his photography played a key role in the preservation of Yosemite.
His use of wet-plate photography, where exposures can take up to 30 minutes (and required a makeshift darkroom where he was shooting), is an amazing feat in itself and is on display throughout his works. The photograph titled Three Brothers playfully refers to three grandiose mountain peaks, the background whited out to push the “brothers” front and center. It’s clear to see which is the dominant one; the center peak is the largest and clearly keeps watch over the other two. The effect is stark and stunning in its simplicity and command of the natural world surrounding the peaks.
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Watkins’ influence is clearly seen in the works of Eadweard Muybridge, an Englishman who is often considered the father of the motion picture. Muybridge’s use of cutting-edge technology in the 1870s involved taking electronically triggered images through freezing a sequence of motions like a strip of movie film.
The effect is simply mesmerizing in Vernal Falls, a waterfall with a 400-foot drop where we can almost feel the rush of water falling, the intensity of the energy and the power of gravity pulling all in its path forward. And finally, the resting place on the bottom, where fog and mist and spray are swirled together. But Muybridge also manipulated his images, as we see the same set of clouds used repeatedly in various photos. Think of this as an early form of Photoshop. It worked to great effect commercially: Muybridge’s work helped to promote tourism in the American West and in particular, what would eventually become Yosemite National Park.
Muybridge also manipulated images, to the point of cutting down trees and showing off his handwork in View of Yosemite from Mosquito Camp. Both Muybridge and Bennett sought to make the American landscape look more like paintings in their photos; this is clearly on view in Muybridge’s Merced River, Yosemite Valley. Bennett’s goal of also creating a three-dimensionality exceeds expectations in this work where we can see the finer points of broken rocks hunkered down in the still water, the late afternoon shadow creeping up onto the shoreline, a somber reflection of a crowd of evergreen trees demanding our attention, and in the background, the whitewashed solitary presence of the mountain range, presiding over all.
The exhibit’s crowning achievement lies in Bennett’s amazing panoramic view of The Narrows, Wisconsin Dells. Bennet used stereographs to create seamless panels of photos. The Wisconsin River comes alive amid the jagged rock formations and the river’s twists and turns. The grace and grandeur of nature speaks silently yet powerfully in “Photographing Nature’s Cathedrals” for those who stop to listen.
“Photographing Nature’s Cathedrals: Carleton E. Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and H.H. Bennett” is on view through Aug. 26, in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum. For more information, visit mam.org.
