Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869
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Perspective and Photography
The collection contains four different images of Scott's Bluff, a major landmark on trails west. They provide the opportunity to examine the importance of perspective. Search on Scott's Bluff to compare these images. Write a brief explanation of what each image tells you about Scott's Bluff, such as its size, location, color, texture, and significance.
- From what view point was each image of Scott's Bluff made?
- What information does each image convey about this landmark?
- How much of this information is conveyed in multiple images?
- How much of this information is unique to a particular image?
Select an object or landmark and create four different images of it, each from a different perspective. What information does each image convey? Would the viewer get an accurate and complete sense of the object or landmark by viewing these images? If not, what other perspectives could you present in order to provide a more complete depiction of your subject? From what perspective could you create an image that would present a distorted, confusing, or incomplete view of your subject?