Time exposure; the autobiography of William Henry Jackson

by William Henry Jackson

Book by Jackson, William Henry

341 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Elizabeth]

Great Grandfather's Journal

It was so good to see Time Exposure available in paperback and Kindle editions.
I have read Time Exposure many times but it was fun to revisit it after watching Yellowstone and 1896.
William Henry's adventures never fail to entertain.

[Lissa]

Fabulous autobiography of a very interesting character. I only wish the book had links to photos - I had to go searching for them. Highly recommend this book if you have any interest in:

- Exploration and settlement of the American West
- Photography
- Building of the continental RR
- Native American / European interaction between the Civil War and 1900
- The Civil War

Here are links to the photos I found:
National Park Service biography with photos and text
State of Wyoming bio and photos
Petapixel - photo site - bio and photos
Link to an audio interview of Jackon on his 98 birthday
Smithsonian archive of Native American Photos
Pawnee Photos
BYU collection - Largest collection
Museum of Nebraska Art - nice pages - easy to see photos
 World's Columbian Exposition Photographs - Chicago 1893

Photos explicitly mentioned in the book:

Mountain of the Holy Cross
Chief Ouray, head man of the Uncompahgre Utes.
Fremont Peak
Leadville, the sky city
battery of six forty-pound guns, each drawn by two elephants.
Taj Mahal

[Robert Glen]

Excellent trip into the past

As a lifelong photographer both amateur and sometimes professional, I was fascinated by the ways it used to be done and how it literally evolved from an almost scientific technical endeavor mixed in with a little luck and need for an artistic sensibility, to a thing that almost anyone could easily do with little effort. I wish W.H. Jackson could see the state of the art of photography now, both amateur and professional, and hear his take on it. Many of his images are still far superior to anything produced now.

[Dennis]

What an amazing man William Henry Jackson was and what a life. One of the most famous of the early photographers, but so much more. Fought in the Civil War, explored and photographed so much of the world. He was the first to photograph Yellowstone and those photos were instrumental in Yellowstone becoming our first national park. Great read, but written many years ago, so can be a bit slow at times. Overall very interesting

[Kat]

I've always loved first-person accounts of history, and this book certainly fills the bill. W.H. Jackson was a Civil War veteran, artist, photographer, adventurer and world traveler who wrote this autobiography when he was in his nineties. He was a key member of the U.S. geographical expeditions into the largely unknown areas of the west and was the first to photograph Yellowstone, Yosemite, and much of the Southwest. Later in his life, he traveled to Europe and Asia as photographer with another government expedition. He kept a journal throughout all his travels, and this is the basis for his book.

Equally fascinating to me is his account of the evolution of photography, the processes and equipment he used all along the way. I can't even imagine having to use a light-proof tent in the middle of the wilderness to develop glass plate negatives. (Or carrying 400 lbs. of glass plates on a mule, mixing my own chemical solutions from scratch, etc.)

This book stays in my permanent collection because there's just so much in it I'll want to revisit.

[Judy]

It was nearly eighty years ago that I started writing this book. And now that it is finished, quite a number of sentences still stand just as I put them down in the notebook I carried with me to the War. As time went on, I continued to write a journal; ... I suppose I have accumulated a million words of longhand notes.

WHJ ... He saw the West when it was still wild. He was a member of exploration expeditions. He took stunning photos at a time when cameras were cumbersome (to say the least). He had a business in Denver. He made postcards and stereoviews. (WHG joined the Detroit publishing company in 1897.) So, I had lots of reasons for wanting to know more about the man.

The prose are good and WHJ's experiences varied. This edition includes many photographs that were taken by him. I wish he had said more about the challenges/realities of being a photographer in those early days of cameras.

[Todd P]

Excellent autobiography of a Civil War veteran who became a famous photographer.