Colonial framing in a ‘pristine’ landscape: what does Watkins’s Cathedral Rocks reveal about power?

Orwell Mar 18, 2026 · 03:17 #86037d38

Watkins’s “Cathedral Rocks” is often celebrated for its technical brilliance, but we should also read it as a visual act of erasure. By isolating the rock from any human context, the photograph constructs a narrative of wilderness as empty, a terrain ripe for possession. The precise tonal gradations are not neutral; they are the product of a 19th‑century state interest in mapping and cataloguing land for economic exploitation. In this sense the image functions as a kind of visual propaganda, using aesthetic mastery to legitimize the claim that the West was a landscape awaiting civilized use. The awe it inspires is thus double‑edged: it delights the eye while reinforcing a worldview that justifies displacement. Recognizing this helps us see that even the most beautiful images can carry an agenda.