Timothy O'Sullivan: "The King Survey"

             Timothy O’Sullivan, one of the most influential photographers of the nineteenth century, documented exploration of the west with attention to both geological and human subjects. “The King Survey” consists of a multitude of his rare images and other studies from this exploration after the Civil War. Conceived for scientific, political and financial reasons, the survey’s purpose was to prime the terrain for settlement while discovering new life on the land. Throughout the exhibit, geological studies, landscapes, miners and mining operations, and settlements can be viewed, evidence that specialists from various disciplines worked together in this project.

Timothy O’Sullivan’s images portray important information, but he also makes his own presence in the west evident. He emphasizes the difficulties of working on the terrain as a photographer, while showing what others might have to endure in these conditions, like miners or future farmers. The photos serve as documents, as O’Sullivan used depth and scale to represent what a map could not. He was ahead of his time, using the enlarging process (even though it was rare during the era) and photographing with the clarity of a proto-modernist. While he used such systems as people to show the scale of the landscape, these inclusions were also aesthetically pleasing; many of these stereographs were used by O’Sullivan personally when he tried to sell them. Though the photos coexisted with maps and text, they are a wealth of information on their own.

Before viewing “The King Survey,” our discussion with an Art Institute conservator, Doug Severson, was an informative behind-the-scenes look at the processes used to maintain aging photographs. Those that he showed us were impressive, including palladium prints of Georgia O’Keefe, work by Antel Adams, and a rare Frederick Douglas daguerreotype. Conservators are responsible for a wide range of prints, from daguerreotypes to digital. He relayed that the goal is to preserve the photograph in whatever condition it is in, rather than intervene and change it. These conversations with the staff at various museums have shown me that there are so many processes that have to be gone through in order to finally have a collective exhibit. I’m much more aware of the time and effort that goes into even just one show.