Photography and the Making of the American West
- ISBN-10
- 020802512X
- ISBN-13
- 9780208025128
- Pages
- 124
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2003
- Publisher
- Linnet Books
- Author
- Paul Clee
Description
Photography came on the American scene at about the same time the exploration and settlement of the West was getting underway. The converging of these processes resulted in a complex interrelationship which has influenced the public perception of the frontier, its landscape, and its inhabitants from the 1840s onward. By telling the story of who the early frontier photographers were, how they worked, and what influenced them, Paul Clee shows how their vision became our own. From the famous -- Edward S Curtis and William Henry Jackson -- to the obscure, these men documented what they saw for a variety of purposes both practical and artistic. Sometimes they manipulated subjects or events to achieve desired effects for the folks back East. Other times they brought nineteenth century ideas and sensibilities to their work, rendering for an eager audience a West that perhaps never was or would be. For all study of the Westward movement, how the new medium of photography affected history is undeniable; and the popular American imagining of the West has been forever influenced by its images.
