The creation of the National Parks, as well as their later expansion and place in peoples’ lives was, at various times, influenced by photography. Today we might consider this an obvious concept; after all, doesn’t the breathtaking scenery just call out to be photographed? Yet the role of photographs in shaping this system was more complicated than it might seem.
Landscape photography, particularly in the United States, followed closely the trajectory of landscape painting. Landscape painting did not become a prominent genre in the United States until the 1840s, at which time artists tended towards European styles which often emphasized the “mood of nature” rather than the way that it literally appeared (1). After 1850, this practice gradually changed, as many of the great landscape painters began to depict scenery in its more natural forms. The enthusiasm for natural landscape photography increased along with the development of more advanced photographic technology and new scientific discoveries in the natural world (1). One landscape photographer whose work demonstrated this principle was Carleton E. Watkins, who first photographed the Yosemite Valley in 1861. These photographs were the first to “systematically present the landscape as a wilderness before the arrival of man” (1). This change in the purpose of landscape photography was significant, as the federal government would later attempt to preserve Yosemite and other portions of land under the same guiding idea.
Carleton E. Watkins, Yosemite Valley, 1866 (Getty Museum)
After the Civil War, access to the American West opened to even more citizens, government officials and, of course, photographers. Although photos of Western landscapes found a market in the homes of ordinary citizens back east, the United States government was active in expeditions and surveys which often employed photographers, including Watkins. The purpose of these surveys was usually scientific; mapping terrain, identifying geological features, or studying flora and fauna. It was one such expedition which would have a profound effect on the creation of Yellowstone National Park; the first to be designated as preserved land at the national level.
F. V. Hayden served as head of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, beginning in 1867. For eight years he employed William Henry Jackson as one of his photographers. It is Jackson’s photographs of the Yellowstone region that are often credited with influencing Congress to designate the area a national park. His first attempts at photographing this area, in 1871, were said to have been unconvincing. His return in 1872, however, successfully captured all of Yellowstone’s major features, the results of which were put into bound volumes and circulated among congressmen in Washington, along with Hayden’s reports, submitted as part of the renewal process for his expedition (1). If these photographs did indeed have this effect, it is important to remember several other points.
William H. Jackson, Upper Geyser Basin from vent of Old Faithful (NPS)
One is that there was a great element of chance to the photographs, as photography had major technical limitations at the time. Many photographs taken by both Jackson and others were lost to various physical disasters or, simply, lost. Although the photographs were certainly being intentionally used to affect a desired result, these specific photos by Jackson might have found their equivalent in others.’ Another point is that the photographs were intended as an accompaniment to Hayden’s written and spoken reports (2); although they corroborated firsthand accounts of the geological features that had been spoken of for years, there is no reason to assume that the photographs had the biggest impact on Congress’ decision.
Yet people do assume this. It is the photographs that people most remember, and the photographs that have become the biggest part of history. Why is this? Perhaps as illustrated by the expression a “picture is worth a thousand words,” people seem to give more weight to the significance of pictures whether they can remember the actual photos or not. Most Americans today will have seen old black and white photos of the National Park lands (or just the American West), whether Jackson’s or someone else’s, but how many will have read old geological reports written by F. V. Hayden?
Also, although words can have very flexible uses, it is often easier to give images different meanings depending on what message they need to send. In many ways photographs of the great landscapes of the West feel unchanging to us. Americans today can look at a picture of Jackson’s Yellowstone, and feel that they are looking at the exact same sights as they exist now. Perhaps that’s what Congress felt in 1872: that they were looking back at primitive land as it had been for centuries. People today might not describe the landscape in the same way that Hayden did, but the photographs seem to express our same values, because we are able to project these onto them.
Another reason that it is easy to believe these pictures had a profound effect on government officials, however, is that this pattern was repeated over again in our more recent history, and with deliberate purpose. An example of this is famously found in the work of Ansel Adams, who created a book of photographs in 1938 titled Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, on behalf of the Sierra Club’s (and his own) efforts to protect Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks (3). Given that it is much more recent history, there is documentation of the powerful effect these photographs had on decision makers in Washington. Adams’ work was done in the cause of conservation; to protect these areas from increasing commercial development
In this sense, there is an irony to all of these influential photographs. Often taken as a call to preserve the natural world, they also exist as a record of land that has changed, and will continue to change, both by natural forces and people’s actions. Photography will surely continue to play a role in the effort to protect this land.
References
1. Naef, Weston J. Era of Exploration: The Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860-1885, Albright-Knox Art Gallery and Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975.
2. Jussim, Estelle and Elizbeth Lindquist-Cock. Landscape as Photograph, New Haven: Yale UP, 1985.
3. McIntosh, Phyllis. “Pictures Worth a Thousand Acres,” National Parks, Spring 2005, 30-34.
4. Findley, Rowe. “Life and Times of William Henry Jackson: Photographing the Frontier,” National Geographic, 175.2, 1989.
5. Wikipedia. Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams. Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams
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