Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1830–1902)

"Monument Rock, Mouth of Echo Canon," 1868-1869

Albumen print

30.3 x 23.5 cm

From mid-1868 until the driving of the golden spike on May 10, 1869, Russell photographed the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Great West Illustrated… is a rare complete volume of 50 albumen prints in superb condition. At Echo City, Utah, Russell made this commanding view, “Monument Rock, Mouth of Echo Canon,” of the frontiersman's precarious hold on a terrain that had until then been shaped only by millennia of geological forces.

Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1830–1902)

"Hanging Rock, Foot of Echo Canon," 1868-1869

Albumen print

23.0 x 29.0 cm

From mid-1868 until the driving of the golden spike on May 10, 1869, A. J. Russell photographed the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad. The Great West Illustrated… is a rare complete volume of 50 albumen prints in superb condition. At Echo City, Utah, Russell made this dramatic view, “Hanging Rock, Foot of Echo Canon,” of the frontiersman's precarious hold on a terrain that had until then been shaped only by millennia of geological forces.

Hugh Owen (English, 1808-1897)

Washing place with basket

Albumen print, 1860s-1870s, from a paper negative, before 1855

17.4 x 22.2 cm

Owen's range of subject matter, both during his years as an amateur and as a professional photographer, was varied. His ability to capture the poetic in the seemingly trivial landscape of both the natural and man-made worlds is notable. His sense of perspective imbues this particular print with a grandeur that might be more commonly associated with ancient ruins. His ability to push to the limits the artistic potential of the paper negative process as evidenced in this image is perhaps one explanation for his continued fidelity to its use.

John Payne Jennings (English, 1843-1926)

"Study at Belle Isle, Lake Windermere"

in "The English Lake District" portfolio, 1870s

Albumen print, 21.0 x 27.1 cm

This rare example of the photographer’s portfolio contains a full selection of prize-winning images from which the customer could choose to buy prints singly or in groups.

Payne Jennings’s photographs are extremely rare compared with other successful British studios of the 1870s. The larger format of his photographs stood apart from contemporary studios that had moved away from expensive large prints towards smaller, more affordable whole-plate or even carte-de-visite views. His picturesque views were often included in special edition publications of British poets and novelists such as Wordsworth, Longfellow and Tennyson.

The present Payne Jennings views of the English Lake District depict the dramatic landscapes that inspired the Romantic poet William Wordsworth and were adored by John Ruskin, who spent his childhood holidays there and owned a home on the shore of Coniston Water.

Alvin Langdon Coburn (English, born American, 1882-1966)

In the High Sierra, Yosemite, circa 1911

Coated platinum print

31.2 x 40.2 cm

In March 1911, Coburn left New York by train for Los Angeles. He spent the next eighteen months living with relatives in Hollywood. From there he made photographic excursions to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon in June and July, traveling through the Yosemite Valley and the High Sierras, camping under the stars and taking photographs. Coburn's Yosemite pictures incorporate mass and abstract geometrical patterns made with a long lens, a departure from his earlier work, the predominantly lush, dark, textured gum platinum prints and photogravures.

Coburn bequeathed this print to the George Eastman House, Rochester, in 1966. It was transferred to MOMA, New York, by exchange in 1974 and then sold by MOMA at auction in 2002.

Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829-1916)

Up Yosemite Valley from the Foot of El Capitan, 1865-1866

Mammoth plate albumen print

41.0 x 52.5 cm

Taken in the High Sierras, Carleton Watkins's mammoth plate views of Yosemite established his reputation as the greatest landscape photographer of his time. A meticulous craftsman, he chose his vantage points and quality of light carefully, rendering his subjects in the most evocative light and with perfect sharpness. Watkins's Yosemite albumen prints are at once bold and subtle, as seen in Up Yosemite Valley from the Foot of El Capitan; their graphic strength is matched by a richness of tone and a delicacy of detail.

Joseph vicomte Vigier (French, 1821-1894)

"Saint-Sauveur. Cirque de Gavarnie," the Pyrenees, 1853

Salt print from a paper negative

27.5 x 37.6 cm

One of several views by Vigier of the Pyrenees, “Saint-Sauveur. Cirque de Gavarnie,” a particularly fine salt print from a waxed paper negative, features the physical splendor and vast expanse of the mountain range. Vigier even managed to capture the white cloud bank, a pervasive weather pattern in the natural amphitheater known as the Cirque de Gavarnie, here recorded in a photograph for the first time.

Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869)

Landscape with waterfall, likely Braemar, River Dee, Scotland, 1850s

Salt print from a collodion negative

31.5 x 30.6 cm, top corners rounded

As a landscape photographer Fenton was without parallel among his contemporaries. His most compelling views of the English, Welsh and Scottish countrysides evoke the paintings of Constable and Turner and the Romantic poetry of William Wordsworth. A critic for the Journal of the Photographic Society, in a review of the annual exhibition in 1858, noted of Fenton's work, "No one can touch Fenton for landscape....There is such an artistic feeling about the whole of these pictures...that they cannot fail to strike the beholder as something more than mere photographs."

Louis-Auguste & Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (BISSON FRÈRES)

(French, 1814-1876 & 1826-1900)

"Le Col du Géant," the Alps, circa 1860

Albumen print, 21.4 x 39.0 cm

Among their contemporaries, the Bisson Frères were known by the range of their photographic activity. Napoleon III and the Empress Eugenie commissioned the Bisson Frères to accompany them and make photographs of a trip to Switzerland’s Savoy Alps in 1860. Today the brothers are most recognized for their achievement documenting the architecture of Paris and for their pioneering images of the Alps made on glass negatives in the 1850s and 1860s, among which is this striking albumen print “Le Col du Géant.”

William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877)

Rustic bridge across a gorge, circa 1844

Salt print from a calotype negative

14.1 x 18.1 cm on 19.7 x 24.1 cm paper

In this beautifully composed and picturesque salt print, Rustic bridge across a gorge, Talbot exploited the relatively long exposure time of the calotype, the fast-running stream partially blurs into a silky ribbon animating the photograph. The rustic bridge contrasts with the rugged surroundings, promising a quick if thrilling passage over the current. Based on the distinctive character of the landscape, this was almost certainly taken in the Trossachs of Scotland, most likely in the vicinity of Loch Katrine.