El Capitan, Yosemite

Carleton E. Watkins's photograph captures El Capitan's massive granite face rising above Yosemite Valley's meadow and coniferous forest. Shot during the early years of large-format landscape photography, this image exemplifies Watkins's technical mastery of the albumen print process and his compositional use of foreground vegetation to establish scale and depth. The monumental rock formation dominates the hazy middle distance, while atmospheric perspective softens distant peaks. Watkins's Yosemite series, produced in the 1860s, helped establish American landscape photography as fine art and contributed to growing conservation sentiment that would lead to the valley's protection as a state park in 1864.