Timothy O'Sullivan: Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, 1867 – Porcelain Art Mug

Timothy O'Sullivan had photographed Gettysburg before he ever saw a desert. In 1867 he went west with Clarence King's survey of the fortieth parallel and made this plate in the Carson Desert of Nevada: a dune, a wagon, four mules and two sets of footprints.

The wagon is the reason the picture exists. It is a Civil War ambulance that O'Sullivan had converted into a darkroom on wheels. A wet collodion plate has to be coated, exposed and developed while it is still damp — about ten minutes, in sand, at noon — so everything he needed had to stand within a few paces of the camera. That is how his own equipment ends up inside his own photograph.

And he arranged what you see. The museum's own record makes the point: he chose a viewpoint that blocks the horizon and shows a single wagon and only two lines of footprints. In the twenty-five years before he stood here, more than 165,000 people had passed close to this spot on their way to California. The emptiness is a decision, not a fact.

The mug carries the plate whole. Nothing is cropped, because the framing is the work: the sheet stands complete within the part of the cup you see face on, the warm tone of the albumen paper against the white porcelain, and the wagon a little right of centre, where O'Sullivan put it.

Fine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada, 1867; albumen print from wet collodion negative, 19.7 × 27 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2002.45. Public domain (CC0).

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.