新阿尔马登山上的小镇 - 美国大都会艺术博物馆展品查阅

品名（中）	新阿尔马登山上的小镇
品名（英）	The Town on the Hill, New Almaden
入馆年号	1989年，1989.1083
策展部门	摄影（Photographs）
创作者	Carleton E. Watkins【1829 至 1916】【美国人】
创作年份	公元 1863
创作地区
分类	照片（Photographs）
尺寸	39.7 x 52.3 厘米 (15 5/8 x 20 9/16 英寸)
介绍（中）	沃特金斯是美国西部最完美的摄影师，他将对高难度湿版底片工艺的精湛掌握与严谨的画面结构感结合在一起。1863年，他被雇来对加利福尼亚州圣何塞附近的新阿尔马登的水银采矿作业进行摄影调查。水银——用来与最细的黄金颗粒结合并称重，否则这些黄金颗粒可能会在冲洗过程中漂走——对金矿业至关重要，而水银的开采本身也成为了一项有利可图的企业 Watkins的客户希望用他的照片说服潜在投资者相信新Almaden网站的前景。为此，沃特金斯制作了大量立体图，记录了采矿过程的微小细节，以及旨在展示该镇最大优势的庞大视图。沃特金斯利用清晨朦胧的宁静和风景如画的有利位置，将采矿营地描绘成一个迷人的山村，拥有迷人的整洁和完美的宁静。
介绍（英）	Watkins, the consummate photographer of the American West, combined a virtuoso mastery of the difficult wet-plate negative process with a rigorous sense of pictorial structure. In 1863 he was hired to make a photographic survey of the quicksilver mining operations in New Almaden, near San Jose, California. Quicksilver—used to bond with, and weigh down, the finest particles of gold that might otherwise float away in the sluicing process—was essential to the gold-mining industry, and the mining of quicksilver itself became a profitable enterprise. Watkins's clients hoped to use his photographs to convince potential investors of the promise of the New Almaden site. To this end Watkins made numerous stereographic views documenting minute details of the mining process as well as mammoth views that were meant to show the town to its best possible advantage. Capitalizing on the calm of the hazy early morning and a picturesque vantage point, Watkins portrayed the mining camp as a charming mountain village possessing an appealing tidiness and an air of perfect tranquility.