Timothy O'Sullivan

albumen print, on the two-toned Wheeler Survey mount, the photographer’s credit, title, ‘No. 2,’ and survey information in letterpress on the mount, 1871 (Dover, pl. 5)

Judging this albumen print on a scale of 1 to 10 – a 10 being an albumen print that has deep near-black dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail – this print rates an 8. While the tones of the image appear, at first glance, to be light overall, close scrutiny reveals that the print has very deep dark tones (in the shadow of the rock at the left of the image, for instance). The fact that O'Sullivan was able to make a successful exposure photograph in what must have been very difficult conditions, with brilliant sunlight and many reflective surfaces, is a testament to his skill. There is no loss of detail in this print and, in fact, the level of detail present throughout the print is quite striking: from the boat and photographic equipment in the foreground, to the rock cliffs in the distance, everything is rendered with great clarity. When examined closely in raking light two very faint linear scuffs can be seen in the upper left quadrant. Four small dots in the sky area may be due to imperfections in the sky area appear to be defects in the paper. The mount is lightly soiled and age-darkened, and shows very minor wear on the edges and corners.
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