d [it] as a continuing source of pictorial inspiration." Watkins' photographs received awards from places as far away as Austria and Chile, from American expositions, and, in 1867, he was awarded a very important prize for landscape photography at the Paris International Exhibition.
Accompanying this rise to fame was Watkins' very reasonable desire to make his fortune. After some unsuccessful relationships with publishers and galleries Watkins decided to open his Yosemite Art Gallery in 1867. This establishment marked a turning point as "the beginning of his determination to commercially control and guarantee authorship of his own photographs." In this venture Watkins also meant to actively promote his own work, and that of other serious photographers, as a fine art. He pictured himself as "an important arbiter" of the artistic standards of his field. The luxurious gallery was to be a serious commercial proposition, however, and Watkins intended sales of slides for the very popular stereopticon format to provide the bulk of the gallery's inc
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