A few photographers had documented Yosemite Valley before Muybridge, including Charles Weed and Carleton Watkins. But in 1872 Muybridge, a consummate promoter of his own work, declared that “although many carefully executed large-size photographs of our scenery have already been published,” he intended to create “a more complete realization . . . of the vast grandeur and pictorial beauty for which our State and Coast have so world-wide a reputation.”

Muybridge was willing to do almost anything to create the most striking images, including cutting down trees, waiting days for the right weather, and venturing onto precipitous overhangs where others were unwilling to accompany him. For this image he took a more painterly approach, crafting a composition with a gentle and gradual foreground that leads to far-off looming cliffs. After several months in the valley, Muybridge returned to San Francisco with over 500 glass-plate negatives, including several “mammoth” images like this one, that were published to wide commercial and critical success.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023).