Carleton Watkins Valparaíso, 1849
be shared through reproduction there was little financial incentive to work in the field.
The truth is that general landscape and urban daguerreian views had little or no commercial value in the 1840s, with the consequence that most of the outdoor views that do survive were made to satisfy the photographers' own creative agendas.[21] However, Valparaíso was, unexplainably, the location of several daguerreotypes made in the field of a quality and rarity comparable to the best images of the same type made in Europe and North America at about the same time.
Exemplary of these unprecedented works is a pair of magnificent whole-plate daguerreotypes, both of which were made with the camera in the same position on the same day [Fig. 7].[22] Both the daguerreotypes show overviews of the Custom House district of Valparaíso. At nearly the center of the images is the very zone where the daguerreian rooms of Vance y Cia. and Helsby Retratista were located [Fig. 8] on the calle de la Aduana [Fig. 3], and where the Ward Brothers studio had been located until mid-1847.[23] The views, therefore, have a relevant relationship to the history of photography in Valparaíso in the spirit of the photographer showing "this is where I worked."
The pair of daguerreotype views was made from an elevated position at the northwestern perimeter of Valparaíso’s maritime and warehouse district looking southeast, a viewpoint that was not the most obvious place for the photographer to stand.[24] For the best views, tourist guidebooks of the period directed travelers to the the Cerro de la Concepcíon, a feature that projected towards the Pacific Ocean and offered panoramas west to the custom house district [Fig. 9A] and east to the Plaza Victoria and the opera house [Fig. 9B]. Light from the sun low in the sky to the the photographer’s back reflects off the buildings and establishes that the camera was facing to the east [Fig. 8].
When we study the U. S. Naval 1851 Plan of Valparaíso we find a location above the bonded warehouses[Fig. 10] that matches what is shown in the daguerreotypes. From the bluff above the bonded warehouses there was a direct line of sight towards the Cerro de la Concepcíon across Valparaíso harbor to the district surrounding the Custom House and Merchant Exchange. Both views include the clock tower that was a component of the Intendencia complex. It is testimony to the quality and
[21] For example, Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey in France, Samuel Bemis in New Hampshire, and Southworth and Hawes in Boston.
[22] J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2008.29) and Archive of Modern Conflict, Toronto (formerly Matthew R. Isenburg Collection).
[23] Rodriguez, p. 57
[24] With thanks to Steve Heselton for assistance in identifying the viewpoint.