The evolving ecological dimensions of photography in the American West and their ongoing impact. Photography and the American West have long been culturally intertwined. Since the 19th century, iconic photographs of western landscapes—think of Carleton Watkins’s Yosemite views—have been read as inherently environmentalist. Challenging this assumption, Ecologies of Photography in the American West examines the medium’s role in documenting, profiting from, and transforming ecosystems across its varied geographies. This book brings together a diverse range of scholars and artists to trace photography’s roots in the earth and its entanglement with resource extraction and ecological rights. Timely and expansive in scope, the volume reframes the history of the region and foregrounds photography’s complicity—as well as its potential—in shaping environmental understanding. It speaks to anyone attuned to the urgent environmental conversations defining the contemporary American West. With an afterword by Robin Kelsey. Monica Bravo is Assistant Professor of the History and Theory of Photography in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University. Carolin Görgen is Associate Professor of American Studies at Sorbonne Université and a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Going far beyond conventional discussions of photographs of the American West, this volume includes Indigenous perspectives and addresses colonial relations, discusses photochemistry and the legacies of extraction, and makes vividly evident the many connections between images and the material, environmental, and social relations that lie behind them. — Michelle Henning, University of Liverpool Photography and the American West have long been culturally intertwined. Since the 19th century, iconic photographs of western landscapes—think of Carleton Watkins’s Yosemite views—have been read as inherently environmentalist. Challenging this assumption, Ecologies of Photography in the American West examines the medium’s role in documenting, profiting from, and transforming ecosystems across its varied geographies. This book brings together a diverse range of scholars and artists to trace photography’s roots in the earth and its entanglement with resource extraction and ecological rights. Timely and expansive in scope, the volume reframes the history of the region and foregrounds photography’s complicity—as well as its potential—in shaping environmental understanding. It speaks to anyone attuned to the urgent environmental conversations defining the contemporary American West. With an afterword by Robin Kelsey. Acknowledgments Introduction Monica Bravo and Carolin Görgen Part 1: Past Made Present Chapter 1: Rethinking the History of Western American Photography Martha A. Sandweiss Chapter 2: Mirrors with a Memory: War, Memory, and the Western Landscape Binh Danh Chapter 3: (Dis)Placing Edward Weston: The Politics of Shutter Release Monica Bravo Part 2: Natural Resource Extraction Chapter 4: Missing the Forest for the Trees: Pulp, Pollution, and Landscape Photography in the Pacific Northwest Katherine Mintie Chapter 5: Looking at Cows, Reanimating Gelatin: The Biopolitics of Photographic Emulsion Alan C. Braddock Chapter 6: The Death of 7000 Songbirds: Photography’s Toxic Affinities Alice Cazenave Chapter 7: The Nomadic Alchemist Andrés Pardo Piccone Part 3: Native Sovereignty Chapter 8: Corn Pollen Futures: Photography, Environmental Memory, and Indigenous Sovereignty on the Navajo Nation Will Wilson (Diné) Chapter 9: Āina and Accession Photographs of Queen Kapi‘olani and Queen Lili‘uokalani Emily Cornish Chapter 10: Bedrock Mortar vs. Photograph: Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Cosmovision and the Malakoff Hydraulic Mine Jordan Reznick Chapter 11: Everywhere is West Mercedes Dorame (Tongva), with an essay by Emilia Mickevicius Part 4: Against the Classical Landscape Chapter 12: “Mightier than the Pen?” Amateur Photography and the Circulation of Environmental Narratives in California, 1880s–1920s Yves Figueiredo Chapter 13: Black Gold: Petroleumscapes in Southern California Pictorialism and Beyond Carolin Görgen Chapter 14: Documenting “Restless Earth”: John S. Shelton’s Photographs for Geology Illustrated (1966) Jennifer Tucker Chapter 15: Arctic Time: Ecology and Photography in the Ice Fields Elizabeth Hutchinson Afterword Robin E. Kelsey Notes on Contributors