(Idaho - King Survey) No. 75. Shoshone Falls. U.S. Engineer Department, Geological Exploration. Fortieth Parallel.
O'Sullivan
From Barry Lawrence Ruderman, La Jolla, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 31 August 2022
From Barry Lawrence Ruderman, La Jolla, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 31 August 2022
About this Item
O'Sullivan / 1868 / (Idaho - King Survey) No. 75. Shoshone Falls. U.S. Engineer Department, Geological Exploration. Fortieth Parallel. (SPD 5, 100606) Original albumen photograph on card mount (mount size: 12 x 17 1/4 inches). Letterpress in lower margin of mount: "U.S. Engineer Department. Geological Exploration. Fortieth Parallel." Foxing on mount. Photograph also shows some foxing. No. 75 in negative. Nice uniform toning to the image. Condition is very good. A beautiful and iconic photograph by Timothy O'Sullivan, made during the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, led by Clarence King in 1867-1869. O'Sullivan, one of the greatest photographers of the American West, served as the official photographer of the King Survey. This image comes from what photographic historian Keith F. Davis describes as the first (of three) periods of O'Sullivan's King Survey work, made in 1867-68. These early views relflect a rawer vision in the photographer's evolution, as he "was working intuitively and learning as he went." The survey expedition started in Virginia City, Nevada, where O'Sullivan photographed mines and then worked his way east. This work established him as one of the pioneers in photography of untamed nature in pre-industrialized spaces. O'Sullivan became a master at creating stunningly beautiful images that captured the grandeur of the American West. Shoshone Falls, a waterfall situated on the Snake River in south-central Idaho, northeast of Twin Falls, has been described as "the most emotionally and physically dramatic site [O'Sullivan] encountered." (Jurovics). Sometimes referred to as the "Niagara Falls of the West," Shoshone Falls is 212 feet high and flows over a rim approximately 1,000 feet wide. Most of [O'Sullivan's] iconic King Survey images - from his view of his view of his wagon in the dunes to the pictures made on his first visit to Shoshone Falls [including the present image] - come from 1867 and 1868 Interestingly, during all of O'Sullivan's years photographing in the West, Shoshone Falls was the only site he photographed twice. Although O'Sullivan was ostensibly photographing a geological exploration, historians of photography point out that O'Sullivan went far beyond mere documentation, learning how to use photography to "convey not only fact but metaphor." To modern observers the images he produced clearly transcend the report text they were intended to illustrate: .neither do [O'Sullivan's] photographs of Shoshone Falls fit easily within either of King's accounts. O'Sullivan made several views from above Shoshone Falls (plates 26-28), beginning just below the rim of the Snake River canyon and moving sucessively closer and further in to the canyon until his frame is filled from edge to edge, building a progressive level of tension as he moves toward the brink of the falls. - Jurovics, p.35 Clarence King, the Geologist in charge of the expedition, described Shoshone Falls in dramatic language in his famous book, Mountaineering in the High Sierra (1872): Suddenly you stand upon a brink, as if the earth had yawned. Black walls flank the abyss. Deep in the bed a great river fights its way through labyrinths of blackened ruins, and plunges in foaming whiteness over a cliff of lava. Compare the above passage with King's official report on Systemic Geology: Geologically and scenically the neighborhood of Shoshone Falls is the most interesting point of the ca on. The volume of the river in its fullest stage is far less than that of Niagara, but the breaking up of the brink of the Falls by deep reentrant angles, render the cataract one of the most picturesque in the world. The present photograph is from O'Sullivan's t. Seller Inventory # 100606
Bibliographic Details
Title: (Idaho - King Survey) No. 75. Shoshone Falls...
Publisher: O'Sullivan
Publication Date: 1868
Binding: No Binding
Condition: VG
Book Type: Map
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