Photographer Above the Clouds
SOLD April 2014 |
Boudoir-size albumen-print cabinet card showing one of the Hardie Brothers photographers and his camera at Sunset Rock, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, circa 1890. Card inscribed front in gilt ink "Sunset Rock" and imprinted on reverse "Hardie Bros., Photographers. Sunset Rock, Lookout Mountain, Tenn."
Lookout Mountain, located near Chattanooga, Tennessee, was scene to the famed Civil War "Battle above the Clouds" of November 1863. Due to its steady tourism and scenic location a number of photographers operated on Lookout Mountain beginning shortly after the Civil War and continuing into the 20th century. From several locations on the mountain, visitors could be offered their image posed on a rocky outcropping, with the picturesque Tennessee River winding through a distant landscape, visible far, far below them.
I have never before seen an image of any of the mountain's photographers practicing their trade. Hardie Brothers images generally show sitters posed on isolated projecting stones. In contrast, the present image appears to depict the precarious porch-like structure from which Hardie's more common images were taken. The photographer stands beside his camera and appears to lift a lens cap in the air. This is likely the very view that generations of the Hardie's sitters saw while posing for their image.
Besides offering an interesting view of the backstage, as it were, of the Hardie's work, this image is finely composed, again arranged with the winding Tennessee River visible far below.
