byronwolfe.com

SPACE & TIME at the GRAND CANYON

Here are a few selections from recent (and ongoing) collaborative work with Mark Klett.

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. One hundred and five years of photographs and seventeen million years of landscapes; Panorama from Yavapai Point on the Grand Canyon connecting photographs by Ansel Adams, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and the Detroit Publishing Company.

Left (two views): Ansel Adams, 1941, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. (Courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ)
Middle view: Alvin Langdon Coburn, ca. 1911, Bright Angel Canyon. (Courtesy of the George Eastman House, Rochester, NY)
Right: Detroit Publishing Company, 1902, The Grand Canyon of Arizona Across from O’Neil Point. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Sixty-six years after Edward Weston’s “Storm, Arizona” From Marble Canyon Trading Post.

Left: Edward Weston, 1941, Storm, Arizona. (Courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ).

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Details from the view at Point Sublime on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, based on the panoramic drawing by William Holmes (1882).

Lithograph by William Henry Holmes, 1882. From Clarence Dutton, Atlas to Accompany the Monograph on the Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress).

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. Panorama from Hopi Point on the Grand Canyon, made over two days extending the view of Ansel Adams.

Right: Ansel Adams, 1941, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. (Courtesy of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ)

Mark Klett and Byron Wolfe, 2007. View from the south rim of the Grand Canyon with Thomas Moran and California Condor number 302 (one of one hundred fifty-five in the wild).

Right: Thomas Moran, America’s greatest scenic artist sketching at Bright Angel Cove, Arizona. (Half of stereo view) Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography, Riverside.

LAVA BEDS AND THE MODOC WAR

Top inset: Eadweard Muybridge, May 1873. The Modoc Indian War – panorama (from stereo cards) of “Camp South” at the edge of Tule Lake.

Back panels: May 2007: Site of “Gillem’s Camp” from Schonchis’ Rock to Signal Station showing a rebuilt defensive fortification, soldiers cemetery, alfalfa fields, visitor’s pullout, and a quiet calm that belies a bloody and complicated past. Lava Beds National Monument. Tulelake, California.

Muybridge photographs courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and Lee Laney, Chico, California.

In 1873, Eadweard Muybridge was hired by the U.S. Government to photograph the Modoc Wars. Part of his documentation included a quirky and ambitious set of stereo cards that together form a panorama. From a  presentation standpoint, the individual nature of stereo cards makes it nearly impossible to view them in a way that connects the space across each frame.

Today the scene is part of Lava Beds National Monument near the California-Oregon border. I visited the site in May 2007 and was struck by how quiet and calm the region was despite its tumultuous history. It's a place where the feeling of emptiness dominates.

For a more thorough account of the events of the war and Muybridge's role in photographing them, please see Rebecca Solnit's incomparable River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03176-3

Byron

LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK

Carleton Watkins’ “Lassen Peak” (1870) from the heart of the youthful and catastrophic lava domes of Chaos Crags. August, 2007.

Watkins' picture courtesy the U.S.G.S, Denver, Colorado.

Carleton Watkins visited Lassen Peak in 1870 with 28 year-old Clarence King as part of the government survey of the 40th parallel. Watkins made his picture from Chaos Crags in what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The massive scale of the rocks in Chaos Crags is somewhat disorienting in both the picture and at the site. Some of the largest stones in the area are over fifty feet high. Note that there are two figures in the contemporary scene; one in the bottom center, and a second near the bottom left corner of the Watkins' picture.

On a personal note, this is one of the few landscapes I've encountered that was so rugged and dynamic that it gave me nightmares. It is also the first picture I've ever relocated principally using GoogleEarth. I was able to match the snow patterns on Lassen in the historic view with current satellite imagery, then project the vantage point back into Chaos Crags. Here's a link to a GoogleEarth placemark that I established before setting out to make the rephotograph: Download watkins_vantage_point_from_chaos_crags.kmz.zip

Byron

CHICO STATE ARBORETUM & CAMPUS LIFE

Pink Magnolia (Liriodendrum tulipfera) That showy tree behind Tehama Hall, 2/05

In the Spring of 2005 I was commissioned to create a series of pictures about the Chico State Arboretum which spans the entire 119 acre University Campus. A series of banners were made from the original images and a subsequent limited edition poster was produced (all designed by colleague Alan Rellaford).

Most of the pictures were made by placing found objects directly onto a flatbed scanner - a technique reminiscent of some of the earliest photochemical processes practiced by 19th century artists such as William Henry Fox Talbot and Anna Atkins. I added captions in my own handwriting to indicate the specimen's common and scientific names, and the place of discovery.

Here's a slideshow of the original work (11 pictures, 700 K). The prints are usually sized to 40" x 40", though I do make smaller versions. I have continued to gather specimens and ideas and intend to expand the scope of inquiry to consider more broadly the physical space and activities of our campus.

Byron

CHICO REPHOTOGRAPHY

Left: Henry Weatherbee Henshaw, c. 1893. John Bidwell and party, pausing to rest beside the oaks.

Right: April 8, 2007. Easter Sunday family outing in the Alligator Hole Parking Lot, Upper Bidwell Park, Chico, Ca.

John Bidwell was one of the first emigrants on the California Trail and became a prominent figure in California history. He founded the town of Chico and had a substantial ranch and farming operation. The original picture (above left) shows John Bidwell while on a tour of his ranch. Bidwell's wife donated a substantial portion of the ranch to the city in 1905 to create Bidwell Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the country. The four oak trees that are visible in the original view are still present today, although the older two in the back have died and are slowly moldering.

Left: Henry Weatherbee Henshaw, c. 1893. Cañon – Rancho Chico. From Annie Bidwell's personal album, titled in her own hand.

Right: April 8, 2006. High water on Big Chico Creek. Near Salmon Hole, Upper Bidwell Park, Chico, Ca.

This is a rephotograph of a late 19th century view of Chico Creek running through Salmon Hole in Upper Bidwell Park. I went back to this location about four times over five years in an attempt to get an updated version with the water level as high as in the first view. The rephotograph shown here was made after several weeks of relentless rain – and the water still isn't as high as in 1893! The original photograph was made by Henry Weatherbee Henshaw and was kept in Annie Bidwell's personal photo album.

(original pictures courtesy of the Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park and Meriam Library Special Collections at Chico State)

Byron