Ansel Adams 1902-1984

Other prints of this image:

Ansel Adams (Morgan & Morgan, 1972), pl. 71

Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light (Boston, 1979), cover

Watkins to Weston: 101 Years of California Photography, 1849-1950 (Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1992), p. 128

Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 1983), p. 102

Ansel Adams and Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography (Boston, 1985), p. 243

James Alinder and John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams: Classic Images (Boston, 1985), pl. 46

Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images 1916-1984 (Boston, 1988), p. 369

Robert Doty, Photography in America, (New York, 1974), pp. 128-29

Andrea Gray Stillman, Editor, Yosemite: Ansel Adams (Boston, 1995), pl. 1

John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams at 100 (Boston, 2001), p. 89

John Szarkowski, The Portfolios of Ansel Adams (Boston, 1977), p. 49

Beginning in 1916, Ansel Adams made many photographs from Inspiration Point in Yosemite Valley, and the image offered here is the best-known of this series.  Adams wrote of this image, 'I have been at this location countless times over many years, but only once did I encounter just such a combination of visual elements' (Examples, p. 106).  This confluence was due in large part to weather conditions.  Adams arrived at Inspiration Point on a day in early December just as a storm, which had started as heavy rain and had turned to wet snow at midday, began to clear.  Working quickly with his cumbersome 8 by 10-inch camera, Adams waited until the valley had been revealed to capture the fleeting retreat of the clouds and a sunlit Bridalveil fall on film. 

Another early print of the image, also unsigned, but in its original Best's Studio presentation envelope, was sold in these rooms in April 2006 (Sale 8189, Lot 104).  Like that print of the image, the photograph offered here measures approximately 7 by 9 inches, and is mounted on an early board.  The present photograph is accompanied by a 31 December 1941 menu from the New Year's Eve gala at the Ahwahnee Hotel.