Carleton Watkins A Delicate Balance
highest available position from which to view the chosen subject that would define his approach to photography.[24] For example, at Sutter’s Hock Farm residence there is a view “. . .from the top of the house” (R.V. 99). In Sacramento, the view was from the top of the unnamed hotel on J Street (R.V. 123), and in Marysville it was from the top of the United States Hotel (R.V. 110), where the subject also included a “. . .beautiful view of the surrounding country, with its forest of oak” (R.V. 110). Another subject Carleton cultivated over a lifetime of picture-making was that of vessels on the water. On the journey to California from Valparaíso we find the steamships Sea Bird and Panama called out (R.V. 103), while at the wharf in Sacramento the steamers Senator (R.V. 94) and Confidence (R.V. 93), as well as steamers at the Marysville levee (R.V. 101) are named. Carleton loved boats and photographed them everywhere he traveled.[25]
Let us return to Carleton's possible journey from Marysville to Sacramento to Benicia and on to San Francisco as it can be deduced from analysis of Vance's "Catalog" in reverse numerical order. In San Francisco we can speculate that Carleton listened to his boss's preferences, then returned to Marysville via Sacramento, and immediately continued by stagecoach north to Nevada City (R.V. 92, 91). In Nevada City and its environs Carleton focused his attention for the first time on the placer mining operations in that vicinity (R.V. 87-85; 82-80). We can imagine how in choosing his subjects Carleton was compelled to strike a delicate balance between what caught his attention as an artist and what Vance believed held the greatest commercial potential.
Vance’s one page Preface to the “Catalog” devoted half its space to the culture of gold mining. It was clear Vance considered the mining views as the heart of the daguerreotype panorama of California project, thus raising this question: If Vance made the daguerreotypes why are the thirty-five views of this subject lost in the middle of his “Catalog” following R.V. 93? Chapter Twelve will consider a selection of surviving mining daguerreotypes that will be studied in the context of the Catalogue of Daguerreotype Panoramic Views in California.
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End Chapter Eleven:
A Delicate Balance
[24] For example in the first 300 stereographs made between 1858 and 1863, at least 25 were from elevated positions per www.carletonwatkins.org
[25] www.carletonwatkins.org nos. 302, 310, 311, 338, 345, 353, 354, 400, 402,572, 574, 606, 675, 677, 692, 951, 952, 957, 979, 988, 995, 996, 1000, 1275, 1603, 1604, 1606, 1717, 1718, 1720-1723, 1747-1749, 1776, etc. and Naef & Hult-Lewis (2011), cat. nos. 482, 503.