Ansel Adams

The Estate of the photographer to The Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1984

Acquired from the above, 2002

Virginia and Ansel Adams, Illustrated Guide to Yosemite: the Valley, the Rim, and the Central Yosemite Sierra and Mountain Photography (San Francisco, 1963), frontispiece

Nancy Newhall, Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light, Photographs 1923-1963 (San Francisco: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum and Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1963), unpaginated

Ansel Adams, Camera and Lens: The Creative Approach (New York, 1970), fig. 10

Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light (Boston, 1979), pl. 115

Ansel Adams, The Camera (Boston, 1980), fig. 3-1

Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 1983), p. 132

Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography (Boston, 1985), p. 376 

James Alinder and John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams: Classic Images (Boston, 1985), cover and pl. 74

Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images 1916-1984 (Boston, 1988), p. 307

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., Yosemite: Ansel Adams (Boston, 1995), p. 55

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs (Boston, 2007), p. 379

Andrea Gray Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams (Boston, 2012), p. 206

Peter Galassi, Ansel Adams in Yosemite Valley: Celebrating the Park at 150 (Boston, 2014), p. 145

Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery, People’s Exhibition Hall, Photographs by Ansel Adams, February 1983, and traveling thereafter to: Beijing, National Museum of Art, March 1983; Tokyo, Odakyu Store Art Gallery, June 1983; Hong Kong Arts Centre, July – August 1983; San Diego, Museum of Photographic Arts, June – August 1984; Haifa, Museum of Modern Art, May – August 1987

San Francisco, Ansel Adams Center, Ansel Adams, a Legacy: Masterworks from the Friends of Photography Collection, March – June, 1997, and traveling thereafter to: Chattanooga, Tennessee, Hunter Museum of Art, July – September, 1997; Louisville, Kentucky, J. B. Speed Museum, September – November 1998; Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, December 1998 – February 1999; Japan, Nihombashi, Mitsukoshi Department Store Gallery, March, 1999; Japan, Ehime Prefecture Museum, June – July 1999; Japan, Toyama Prefecture, Tonami City Museum, July – August 1999; Japan, Hokkaido, Kushiro Art Museum, September – October 1999; Japan, Kawasaki City Museum, October – December 1999; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, May – August 2000

Billings, Montana, Yellowstone Art Museum, Ansel Adams: a Legacy, October 2002 – January 2003 and traveling thereafter to: University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center, Ansel Adams: a Legacy, August 2005 – January 2006; Loretta and Ligonier, Pennsylvania, The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, March – November 2006; Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Institute of Art, May – August 2007; Tucson Museum of Art, October 2009 – February 2010; Missoula, Montana, Missoula Art Museum, October 2011 – April 2012; Helena Montana, The Holter Museum of Art, January – April 2013; Charlottesville, Virginia, University of Virginia, The Fralin Museum of Art, June – October 2013

Ansel Adams’ Moon and Half Dome epitomizes the sublime intersection of nature’s grandeur and photographic artistry.  Made with his Hasselblad camera while en route to the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, this iconic photograph demonstrates Adams’ unparalleled mastery of the large-format camera and his innovative Zone System, with the moon in Zone VII floating over the edge of Half Dome.  The photograph shows deep reverence for the Yosemite landscape, presenting a composition where celestial and terrestrial forms harmoniously converge. The clarity and tonal range underscore Adams' technical prowess, employing the Ansel Adams Zone System to meticulously render the lunar and geological elements with a depth that almost transcends reality. The resulting image invites viewers into an ethereal realm, where the stark, monumental presence of Half Dome is juxtaposed with the serene, luminescent glow of the moon.

Monumental in both visual impact and scale, mural-sized prints fascinated Adams throughout much of his career.  He was an articulate spokesman for the form, writing articles such as ‘Photo-Murals’ for U. S. Camera magazine in November 1940, and including discussions of mural theory and practice in books such as his own The Print: Contact Printing and Enlarging of 1968.  In his 1985 autobiography, Adams wrote, 'I was fascinated with the challenge of making a photographic print in grand scale. Many of my large-format Yosemite negatives took on a new resonance in mural-sized proportions' (p. 187).  In the present mural-sized rendering of Moon and Half Dome, the resplendent moon graces the towering legendary landscape like an altarpiece, underscoring Adams’ commitment to capturing the essence of nature with profound fidelity. 

Mural-sized prints of this dramatic composition are exceptionally rare, if not singular.  Only a handful of 20 by 16-inch prints of this image have appeared at auction in recent years.  A greater number of small-format prints exist (10 by 8 inches), also known as ‘Yosemite Special Edition Photographs,’ many printed by Alan Ross after 1975.  At the time of this writing, no known mural-sized prints of this image have sold at auction or have been located in public institutions.