Timothy H. O'Sullivan: The King Survey Photographs
by: Keith F. Davis and Jane L. Aspinwall

Hardcover. Nelson-Atkins Museum, 1st, 2011, Hardcover, 252 pages. Clarence King's Survey, undertaken between 1867 and 1872, covered a vast swath of terrain, from the border of California eastward to the edge of the Great Plains. It was the first survey to include a full-time photographer--Timothy O'Sullivan--who produced about 450 finished photographs in large-format and smaller-format stereographs. O'Sullivan's images convey a distinct individual quality of perception, at once direct and laconic, as well as a perfect union of objective fact and personal interpretation. As such, O'Sullivan remains the most admired, studied, and debated photographer who worked on the great western surveys of the 19th century. The volume also includes an essential catalogue raisonne of O'Sullivan's King Survey work.