Hoffman, J.M.:

$3,750 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

2254. EL CAPITAN, HEIGHT 7012 FT. YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK [caption title]. A beautiful late-19th century photograph of Yosemite National Park's El Capitan with the Merced River in the foreground, by J.M. Hoffman, Berkeley, California commercial photographer who was active in the late 19th century. The image, taken from across the river, shows the full height of El Capitan, and the excellent tonality of the image ably demonstrates the rock's craggy features. J.M. Hoffman was a portraitist and specialized in marine photography, views of vessels underway as well as interior views, and provided services that ranged from copying and enlarging photographs to developing and printing for amateur photographers. There are scant records of Hoffman photos in OCLC. The two listings we could find are for a photograph by him of teachers at Ursuline Convent, Santa Rosa, California in 1893, taken for the Catholic Education Exhibit at the World's Colombian Exposition that same year (at the Sonoma County Library), and an image of the Exempt Fire Company in San Francisco in 1888 (at the Bancroft Library). We were unable to find mentions of Hoffman in the standard photography references for the period or in online references. A beautiful image of a Yosemite landmark by a relatively unknown Bay Area photographer, handsomely framed.

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