{"product_id":"timothy-osullivan-sand-dunes-carson-desert-1867-porcelain-art-mug","title":"Timothy O'Sullivan: Sand Dunes, Carson Desert, 1867 – Porcelain Art Mug","description":"\u003cp\u003eTimothy 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFine Porcelain — 10 oz. Dishwasher and microwave safe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTimothy H. O'Sullivan, \u003cem\u003eSand Dunes, Carson Desert, Nevada\u003c\/em\u003e, 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).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tazzarte","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58252945719627,"sku":"ed87e3d7-6592-496b-a320-571346211837","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0816\/8475\/8859\/files\/a23f6405-6165-49be-a3ab-aa003d987745.webp?v=1787689027","url":"https:\/\/tazzarte.com\/products\/timothy-osullivan-sand-dunes-carson-desert-1867-porcelain-art-mug","provider":"Tazzarte","version":"1.0","type":"link"}