Carleton Watkins Homo Faber—Man as Maker
Let us also presume that like many young men far away from home for the first time, nineteen-year-old Carleton, with some money in his pockets from the Panama operation, decided to have a daguerreian portrait made. The purpose of such a picture would be to send back to his family in rural Otsego County, New York, as a "hello" and proof of his well-being.[24] Let us further presume that Carleton found his way to the portrait studio of Vance and once inside he encountered Robert Vance himself operating the camera.[25]
After being seated in front of the camera Carleton, would have experienced unfamiliar emotions because creating a daguerreian portrait was an intimate experience between the sitter and the photographer, who performed magic by transforming the person from flesh to icon. The sitter was the sole focus of the photographer's attention during the portrait session. Moreover, there was a physical aspect as the photographer delicately touched the sitter's head and face, to adjust the pose and to secure the head-clamp, as well as, fussing about the sitter to adjust folds in the clothing, and position the arms and hands on the lap, chair-arm or table. Sometimes more than one exposure was made to get the portrait right, a process that required intense interaction between photographer and sitter, during which time mutual attraction could be established. Most of Vance's portrait sitters vanished soon after their ships had taken on food and water, thus lasting relationships with North Americans in Valparaiso were the exception.
Carleton would have been generally aware of the existence of photography before his encounter with Vance, but he could not have had a daguerreian portrait made in his hometown of Oneonta, New York, as there was no photographer established there in 1849.[26] Nor does it seem likely that he could have had one made in New York City, where he arrived with the other boys from Oneonta on March 15, just in time to catch the steamship Crescent City headed to Chagres, Panama. Nor could he have had the portrait made in Panama as there was no daguerreian studio there until 1851.[27] Valparaiso would have been the first opportunity for Carleton to sit before the daguerreian camera since leaving home in the second week of March, 1849.
[24] No such portrait has been located as of this time.
[25] Another possible place for a meeting was Arica, the port for the city of Nuestra Senora de la Paz, Bolivia, where Carleton's boat stopped on his way south, and where Vance stopped on his way to La Paz, but there was no daguerreian studio, which was the stated location of the meeting.
[26] Eugene D. Milener, Oneonta: The Development of a Railroad Town, Oneonta, New York: Self-published, 1998, p. 14.
[27] Vicente Gesualdo, Historia de la Fotografía en América, Buenos Aires: Sui Generis, 1990, p. 230.