This bravura rendering of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, is one of the exceptionally few prints that Adams made of his most famous image in the early 1940s. Likely printed in December 1941, or possibly early 1942, it is undoubtedly the earliest example of this iconic image to come to market. This print exhibits the subtlety of tone, high level of detail in the sky, and open foreground that characterize Adams’ style before the 1950s.
The reverse of the present photograph is dated and inscribed by Adams to his friend Sidney Liebes (1903-1977), president and board chairman of H. Liebes & Co., a family business founded in 1864 that retailed women’s clothing in the Bay Area. Liebes acquired this photograph on occasion of his 14th wedding anniversary to his childhood sweetheart, Marjorie, whom he had married on 24 November 1927. Liebes and Marjorie (1906-2004), who lived in Hillsborough in San Mateo County, CA, enjoyed an enduring friendship with the Adams family, later acquiring a print of the photographer’s Cañon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona (see Lot 19). Adams made the 8-by-10-inch negative for Moonrise late in the afternoon of November 1, 1941. After an unproductive day photographing in the Southwest on behalf of the U. S. Department of the Interior and the U. S. Potash Company of New Mexico, Adams drove by the outskirts of Hernandez, New Mexico. Struck by the quality of light upon the tiny town and its attendant cemetery, Adams and his companions – son Michael and fellow photographer Cedric Wright – immediately pulled the car over to the side of the road and hastily assembled his equipment. Adams made his exposure in the dying light without the benefit of his light meter. Before he had the chance to make a second exposure, the sun sank behind a bank of clouds, and the light changed completely. A full account of the taking of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, appears in many notable monographs including Adams’ Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (1983), Mary Street Alinder’s Ansel Adams: A Biography (1986), Andrea G. Stillman’s Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man (2012), and Rebecca A. Senf’s Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams (2020).
When Adams returned to San Francisco in late November 1941, it is likely that he began experimenting with printing Moonrise shortly thereafter. Correspondence between Adams and E. K. Burlew, First Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Interior, indicates that Adams was printing from negatives made on his recent Southwest trip at that time. Although Moonrise was not taken as part of his government commission, the scale of the photograph offered here, its photographic paper, and the mount with baryta coating are consistent with the prints Adams made for the Department of the Interior. Those prints, delivered by Adams to Washington, D. C., in early March 1942, remain in the National Archives.
Adams printed Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, infrequently in the early 1940s. The negative, made quickly and under trying conditions, proved difficult to print. To produce a print that effectively reflected Adams visualization of the scene, he had to expend a great deal of time and energy in the darkroom coaxing the image through the printing process. In December 1948, Adams undertook the task of reprocessing the negative, re-fixing and washing it and submerging it up to the horizon line in Kodak IN-5 intensifier. This increased the density in the image’s foreground, thus making it easier to print.
The Arrington print of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, offers captivating insight into Adams’ evolving printing technique. Whereas the impact of later prints depends upon stark contrasts, the present definitively-early print evidences the photographer’s nascent, more subtle approach. It unlocks the sublime reality of the negative: a twilight scene bathed by the last rays of the setting winter sun, gauze-like wispy clouds clearly defined in the sky, and a full moon rising over a picturesque American landscape. Later prints – even those made in the mid-1940s – are wholly different, presenting a nighttime view that relies on the drama of high contrast developed in the darkroom.
It is no exaggeration to state that extant early examples of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, are scarce. A print in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, was made circa 1942 for Beaumont Newhall and used by Edward Steichen for reproduction in the 1943 U. S. Camera Annual. Adams also made a print circa 1942 for his patron David McAlpin, which is now in the collection of Princeton University Art Museum. Three prints made between 1942 and 1946 have been located in private collections. A handful of prints made circa 1948 when Adams re-fixed the negative are in both private and institutional collections. Adams gave one such print to Fred Ludekins, his assistant and friend, and another to the photographer Pirkle Jones; these were sold at Sotheby’s New York on 7 April 1998 (Sale 7112, Lot 101) and 17 October 2006 (Sale 8227, Lot 17), respectively. A print from the collection of George Waters, inscribed and dated ‘1948’ by Adams is now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The photograph offered here, made prior to all those aforementioned, is the earliest example of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, to come to auction.
Ansel Adams: Moonrise Photograph
- Las Trampas
'Autumn Storm Near Las Trampas, New Mexico' - Cimarron
Thunderstorm Over the Great Plains, Near Cimarron, New Mexico - Cordova
'Rear of Church, Cordova, New Mexico' - Hernandez
'Church near Española, New Mexico' - San Ildefonso Pueblo
Dance Group, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico - Acoma
'Enchanted Mesa' (Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico) - Taos Pueblo
'Taos Pueblo' - Hernandez
'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico' - Canoncito
'Church, Cañoncito, New Mexico' (Gate and Cross) - Ghost Ranch
'Storm - Ghost Ranch, New Mexico' - Chama Valley
'Clouds, Chama Valley, New Mexico' - Canyon de Chelly
Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona
