Wilderness to Wasteland: The Sublime, the Picturesque and the Uncanny in the Photography of the American West

Abstract

American landscape and wilderness photography has lived under the aegis of the aesthetic, and in particular, under the sign of the sublime and the picturesque, for some time. Ansel Adams’ photographs of towering mountains and canyons are arguably major expressions, exemplars and evokers of the sublime in photography. The sublime involves the formlessness of uplifting spectacles and produces feelings of awe and terror. By contrast, Carleton Watkins’s photographs of mountains reflected in still lakes express the picturesque in photography. The picturesque presents well-formed depictions of serene scenery and produces feelings of pleasure.