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Thread: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

  1. #11
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    Quote Originally Posted by David A. Goldfarb View Post
    Albumen prints were usually starch mounted. Obviously, you would turn them over to a conservator for any kind of remounting, but as long as the paper hasn't become brittle, it's not hard to unmount a starch mounted print. It is probably best to do nothing, but it might be worth consulting with a conservator at the Getty about it.
    I agree that it is probably better to do nothing. One frame (the train photo) had a crack in the glass for several decades, causing some discoloration in the smoggy air of Los Angeles. Amazingly enough, the discoloration is gone after 30 years of being behind a whole piece of glass. The paper is slightly wavey where the crack was.

    I want to re-mat them (it has been perhaps 20+ years since I did it last. I want to use a warmer mat board (8-ply, antique white) and replace the piece of buffered board I put on the back (behind the original acid board) -- just to improve the general pH of the package.

    Vaughn

  2. #12

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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    For those who like albumen prints and trains I can recommend this exhibition in Kansas City:

    http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/Exh...team/index.cfm

    It had a couple of Watkins' photos (at least, it did when I saw the same show in Liverpool this summer), but also several other early albumen prints, and a lot of vintage photography prints in general, from Alexander Gardner to Winston Link and Bill Brandt. Watkins' photographs really stood out, but more for their modernist aesthetic than from any innate technical superiority.

    Also fascinating to me were the photo-realistic watercolours and ink wash drawings from the early days of rail. The market for albums of prints was established by these sorts of illustrations, and the link between them and early 'exotic' photography like Watkins, Muybridge and the rest is clear, but it seems, rarely commented on.

  3. #13
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    Interesting -- just looked thru the Getty online cataloge and they have the image of the train that I have...

    http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/...?artobj=107725

    What is interesting is that the Getty photo is 8 x12 inches in size, mine is about 16x20 -- and the Getty image is just a cropped down version of the one I have...Mine has almost the entire front locomotive and lots more sky and of the valley on the right. Both are from the same negative (same people in the same positions, etc.)

    But now I know where in the Sierras the photo was taken.

    The other photo I have is similar to this...

    http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/...s?artobj=62029

    But mine is taken as a vertical and the camera was set up right on the river bank -- not so high up as the Getty image...the tall tree on the right(but right on the edge of the photo) is identical to the one in my copy.)

    Vaughn

  4. #14
    Dave Karp
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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    I saw the Watkins exhibit at the Getty yesterday. It was outstanding. Very enjoyable and worthwhile. I think it closes next month. If you are in town it is worth seeing.

    Watkins's still life of his mining tools was particularly attractive.

    The exhibit includes a mammoth plate camera, a plate holder, and a printing frame.

    A side benefit of the above was to remind me of how small my 4x5 and WP cameras are!

  5. #15
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    The last time I checked, buffered mounts and mats are NOT recommended for albumen
    prints. Nonbuffered museum board is the way to go. I have a number of old albumen
    prints which have done quite well on their original mounts, which are slightly acidic.

  6. #16
    lazy retired bum
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    Re: Carleton Watkins at the Getty

    There are a huge number of Carleton Watkins mammoth camera prints currently at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum in a magnificent show called "Wild Beauty" images of the Columbia River Gorge from 1867 through 1957. Sadly, Terry Toedtemeier, our wonderful photography curator, who put the show together, passed away in early December. The show is up through January 11, and it should be seen by anyone who loves the gorge and western landscape photography.

    Eric

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