C.L. Weed
1864
The Fallen Tree Hercules, 325 Feet Long

Albumen print
20 3/8 x15 1/2 ins (51.8 x39.4 cm) (image) 25 3/8 x19 1/2 ins (64.5 x49.5 cm) (mount)
 
Swann Galleries - New York
Images & Objects: Photographs & Photobooks, April 20, 2017, #2443, Lot: 15
 
Charles L. Weed is thought to be the first photographer to capture views of Yosemite. His first expedition began in 1859, during which he produced a number of stereo views and approximately 20 10x14-inch plates. He returned in 1864, the same year a bill was passed by Abraham Lincoln known as the Yosemite Grant, which made the valley federally protected land. During this second expedition, Weed traveled with a mammoth-plate camera, which he used to produce a large number of photographs that were subsequently published in a scarce set under the title Yosemite Valley, Mariposa County, and the Big Trees, Calaveras County, California. In the photograph offered here, and a few others in the set, Weed used fellow expeditioners to express the vast scale of the landscape, as the otherworldly topography was completely foreign to most at the time.
 
LL/74093