A Fierce Green Fire

A Fierce Green Fire

The first view of the Yosemite Valley from the Mariposa Trail 1865-6 (detail)

Carleton E. Watkins is an appropriate choice for the cover of Philip Shabecoffs book about the history of the American environmental movement. It was partly on the strength of Watkins early Yosemite Valley photographs that Abraham Lincoln signed legislation protecting the area, eventually resulting in the creation of the National Parks system.
On the book jacket, the original Watkins photograph, The first view of the Yosemite Valley from the Mariposa Trail, has been trimmed down to a small, polygonal detail, shaped, I suppose, to suggest mountain peaks, and as compositional pointers toward the books title.