Carleton E. Watkins | Photographing the American West

Part of From Page To Screen – Bridport’s Film Festival

Accompanying the From Page to Screen film festival will be an exhibition in the Allsop Gallery exploring the work of Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916), one of America’s best-known landscape photographers. Watkins travelled thousands of miles documenting the American landscape and, in particular, the changing fortunes of the American West.

The exhibition will include a selection of reproduced photographs capturing the awe-inspiring scenery of Yosemite, California. Venturing deep into the land, Watkins took highly detailed images using a specially designed large format camera ideally suited to capturing the vast scenic views and towering geological formations. His photographs portrayed Yosemite as an untouched wilderness, despite the land having been occupied for centuries by the Ahwahnechee people, and laid the foundations for Yosemite becoming America’s first National Park in 1864.

As the United States expanded its territory westwards, Watkins documented the newly built railways, the mining and lumbering industries and a burgeoning tourist trade. He captured a landscape in transition and helped shape an image of the American West as a land of opportunity that was central to the idea of the American Dream.

Exhibition open from 10-4, Tues-Sat
Opening hours during From Page to Screen: Weds 23 (10-5); Thurs 24-Sat 26 (10-8); Sun 27 (10-5).

Free Entry

More about the work of Carlton E. Watkins: