Perched Rock, Rocker Creek, Arizona

William H. Bell American, born England

Patron Commissioned by Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler American

1872

Not on view

Bell’s full-frontal photograph of this boulder invites viewers to marvel at its improbable balance. A crouching figure, barely visible in the right foreground, gives a sense of the monolith’s sheer mass. Bell’s framing carves a tight vertical view out of the larger landscape, paring the scene to its essential components. Tempering the deadpan objectivity of a scientist with a sculptor’s sensitivity to form, he negotiates a new professional role—that of the survey photographer. In 1872, Bell joined an expedition for the Wheeler Survey, an initiative by the Army Corps of Engineers to record the topography of America’s western territories. Never intended for the halls of a museum, this and other photographs for the project were commissioned to illustrate the survey’s geological reports and promotional albums.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Perched Rock, Rocker Creek, Arizona
Artist: William H. Bell (American (born England), Liverpool 1831–1910 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Patron: Commissioned by Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler (American, 1842–1905)
Date: 1872
Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions: Image: 10 7/8 × 8 1/16 in. (27.6 × 20.5 cm)
Sheet: 21 7/16 in. × 16 in. (54.4 × 40.6 cm)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of Joyce F. Menschel, 2015
Object Number: 2015.778.37
Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Limestone Walls, Kanab Wash, Colorado River, William H. Bell American, born England, Albumen silver print from glass negative — Limestone Walls, Kanab Wash, Colorado River
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The Amateur Photographer: A Manual of Photographic Manipulation Intended Especially for Beginners and Amateurs

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Excised Knee Joint. A Round Musket Ball in the Inner Condyle of the Right Femur [Gardiner Lewis, Company B, Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers], William H. Bell American, born England, Albumen silver print from glass negative — Excised Knee Joint. A Round Musket Ball in the Inner Condyle of the Right Femur [Gardiner Lewis, Company B, Nineteenth Indiana Volunteers]
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Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Near Paria Creek, Looking West, William H. Bell American, born England, Albumen silver print from glass negative — Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Near Paria Creek, Looking West
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