257
Pointillism versus pointlessness; privacy and totalitarianism; hallowed ground and
rubbish heaps, all confounding the paradox of progress.
27.3 Yosemite and Niagara
Yet, therein persists an undeniable spirit embodied in certain photographs, for
example, of Yosemite and Niagara, two iconic landscapes photographed more than
any other subjects in the world, save perhaps for a kiss beneath the Eiffel Tower, “a
love song celebrating life/one flame remains illuminating loneliness,” as Shimpei
Kusano (1903–1988) so perfectly fixed in his “the white frog”.
12
We have marveled
at the photographs by W. E. Dassonville, in George Sterling’s perfect Yosemite: An
Ode;
13
the Flemish Renaissance-like compositions of John P. Soule’s photographic
engravings for Samuel Kneeland’s The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley, and of
California;
14
the “more than 200 illustrations including eight color plates from
paintings by Chris Jorgensen in John H. Williams’ Yosemite and its High Sierra;
15
the pictures by Thomas Moran to illustrate Thomas D. Murphy’s Three Wonderlands
of the American West;
16
the photographs bridging the Gerhard Richter divide
between photorealism and the suasion of a blurred surreality underscoring our profound ecological uncertainty; the receding, uncredited photos illuminating The
Yosemite, by John Muir;
17
and Galen Rowell’s venerable version in color of Muir’s
The Yosemite.
18
The evolution of these and so many other volumes of photographic tribute situate
our scintillating idée fixe in a penchant provisioning for anonymity that is so at
ironic odds with the masses of tourism following behind. That moment at sunset
when the El Capitan falls spray the North American Wall, and Bridal Veil thunders
toward landfall, adjoining the Leaning Wall, its miraculous prismatic mists on occasion cooling down the parking lot near the base.
These unassimilable juxtapositions of human conquest and our penchant for solitude and the capture of beauty were best enshrined in two volumes of photographs—
Yosemite Valley and Niagara Falls, the text on the back of the 24 stereoscopic double
12 In frogs &. others. [sic] poems by Kusano Shimpei, translated from the Japanese by Cid Corman
and Kamaike Susumu, illustrations by Olhmo Hidetaka and Kuano Shimpei, a Mushinsha Limited
book, Grossman Publishers, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., 1969, p. 43.
13 With a cover in color after the painting by H. J. Breuer, A. M. Robertson, San Francisco, 1916.
14 Alexander Moore Lee & Shepard, Boston; Lee, Shepard & Dillingham, New York, 1872.
15 John H. Williams, Tacoma And San Francisco, 1914.
16 L.C. Page & Company, Boston, 1913.
17 The Century Co., 1912.
18 The Yosemite – the original John Muir text illustrated with photographs by Galen Rowell, each
photograph accompanied by an excerpt from the works of John Muir and an annotation by Galen
Rowell, introduction by the photographer, a Yolla Bolly Press book published by Sierra Club
Books, San Francisco, 1989.
27.3 Yosemite and Niagara
Pointillism versus pointlessness; privacy and totalitarianism; hallowed ground and
rubbish heaps, all confounding the paradox of progress.
27.3 Yosemite and Niagara
Yet, therein persists an undeniable spirit embodied in certain photographs, for
example, of Yosemite and Niagara, two iconic landscapes photographed more than
any other subjects in the world, save perhaps for a kiss beneath the Eiffel Tower, “a
love song celebrating life/one flame remains illuminating loneliness,” as Shimpei
Kusano (1903–1988) so perfectly fixed in his “the white frog”.
12
We have marveled
at the photographs by W. E. Dassonville, in George Sterling’s perfect Yosemite: An
Ode;
13
the Flemish Renaissance-like compositions of John P. Soule’s photographic
engravings for Samuel Kneeland’s The Wonders of the Yosemite Valley, and of
California;
14
the “more than 200 illustrations including eight color plates from
paintings by Chris Jorgensen in John H. Williams’ Yosemite and its High Sierra;
15
the pictures by Thomas Moran to illustrate Thomas D. Murphy’s Three Wonderlands
of the American West;
16
the photographs bridging the Gerhard Richter divide
between photorealism and the suasion of a blurred surreality underscoring our profound ecological uncertainty; the receding, uncredited photos illuminating The
Yosemite, by John Muir;
17
and Galen Rowell’s venerable version in color of Muir’s
The Yosemite.
18
The evolution of these and so many other volumes of photographic tribute situate
our scintillating idée fixe in a penchant provisioning for anonymity that is so at
ironic odds with the masses of tourism following behind. That moment at sunset
when the El Capitan falls spray the North American Wall, and Bridal Veil thunders
toward landfall, adjoining the Leaning Wall, its miraculous prismatic mists on occasion cooling down the parking lot near the base.
These unassimilable juxtapositions of human conquest and our penchant for solitude and the capture of beauty were best enshrined in two volumes of photographs—
Yosemite Valley and Niagara Falls, the text on the back of the 24 stereoscopic double
12 In frogs &. others. [sic] poems by Kusano Shimpei, translated from the Japanese by Cid Corman
and Kamaike Susumu, illustrations by Olhmo Hidetaka and Kuano Shimpei, a Mushinsha Limited
book, Grossman Publishers, Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc., 1969, p. 43.
13 With a cover in color after the painting by H. J. Breuer, A. M. Robertson, San Francisco, 1916.
14 Alexander Moore Lee & Shepard, Boston; Lee, Shepard & Dillingham, New York, 1872.
15 John H. Williams, Tacoma And San Francisco, 1914.
16 L.C. Page & Company, Boston, 1913.
17 The Century Co., 1912.
18 The Yosemite – the original John Muir text illustrated with photographs by Galen Rowell, each
photograph accompanied by an excerpt from the works of John Muir and an annotation by Galen
Rowell, introduction by the photographer, a Yolla Bolly Press book published by Sierra Club
Books, San Francisco, 1989.
27.3 Yosemite and Niagara