For some of the most mesmerizing photographs made for ostensibly documentary purposes, we have only clues to elucidate the original intention. This picture has been published as both "Steam Rising from a Fissure near Virginia City, Nevada" and "Ruby Valley, Nevada;" Clarence King titled it as cited above. None of the titles clarifies the picture's mystery. Surely the shadowy figure is on the edge of an abyss, but whether he is to be swallowed up by it or has just risen from it is unclear. Maybe the point is his very ambiguity in the infernal, Dantean space. Or perhaps he is the anchor in a depiction of an amorphous geological event--the familiar entity by which all things are measured, including the density of vapor and the passage of time.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Fissure Vent at Steamboat Springs, Nevada
Artist:Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, born Ireland, 1840–1882)
Date:1867
Medium:Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions:Image: 22.3 x 29 cm (8 3/4 x 11 7/16 in.) Mat: 41.3 x 47.6 cm (16 1/4 x 18 3/4 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, Marlene Nathan Meyerson Family Foundation Gift, 2005
Accession Number:2005.100.105
Inscription: Stamped in ink on print, verso BL: "EA [encircled]"
[Rinhart Galleries, New York]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, October 8, 1976
From the King Expedition, 1867–72.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Before Photography," May 9, 1981–July 5, 1981.
Joslyn Art Museum. "Before Photography," September 12, 1981–November 8, 1981.
Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, UCLA. "Before Photography," January 4, 1982–February 21, 1982.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Before Photography," March 15, 1982–May 9, 1982.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Photography from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," February 26–May 23, 1999.
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain. "Le Désert," June 20, 2000–November 5, 2000.
Fundación "La Caixa", Madrid. "Le Désert," January 25, 2001–April 15, 2001.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Old Faces and Places: American Photographs, 1845-1870," February 3–April 25, 2004.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Johnson Gallery, Selections from the Collection 40," April 19–July 10, 2005.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin: Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2004-2005 p. 36.
Horan, James E. Jr. Mr. Timothy O'Sullivan, America's forgotten photographer : the life and work of the brilliant photographer whose camera recorded the American scene from the battlefields of the Civil War to the frontiers of the West. New York: Bonanza Books, 1966. p. 262.
Naef, Weston J., and James Wood. Era of Exploration: The Rise of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860–1885. Buffalo: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1975. no. 30.
Galassi, Peter. Before Photography: Painting and the Invention of Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1981. no. 68, p. 90.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. pl. 114.
Thesiger, Wilfred. The Desert. New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2000. pp. 156–157.
Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, born Ireland, 1840–1882)
1864
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's Department of Photographs houses a collection of more than 75,000 works spanning the history of photography from its invention in the 1830s to the present.
![[Quartermaster and Ambulance Camp, 6th Ambulance Corps, Brandy Station, Virginia]](/Rodan/dist/svg/no-image-image-related.svg)
