Redlands From Smiley Hill

1891

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Friend’s work is on display at the Michael Dawson Gallery, 535 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, through March 11

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Appealing to the 19th century’s favorite California myth, Redlands developers named their new plan the Alessandro tract, after a character in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona.” This picture shows that Herve Friend, whom they had hired to photograph the area, entered into the romantic spirit of things. The way the wings of the white mansion with their pitched roofs mimic snow-capped mountains in the distance suggests that here is a place where man and nature can live in harmony.

Albums of Friend’s pictures were sent to potential investors back East. But from the time Friend arrived, things began to unravel. An assistant was murdered while exploring the lake created by a dam across Bear Valley. Then a two-year drought pretty much dried up the water that the lake was to provide for Alessandro. Having lost its liquidity (in both senses), Bear Valley Irrigation Co. failed, and Alessandro was abandoned.

Friend’s photograph is also a fantasy. He appears to have seamed together two negatives, probably because his equipment couldn’t handle the nearby landscape and the mountains and sky in a single exposure. This technique for enhancing nature in photographs was as common in the 19th century as overly optimistic real estate deals.