Ansel Adams

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

Acquired from the above, 2002

Tom Maloney, ed., U.S. Camera 1943 (New York, 1942), pp. 88-89

Liliane de Cock, ed., Ansel Adams (Hastings-on-Hudson, 1972), pl. 63

Robert Doty, ed., Photography in America (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1974), pp. 130-31

Ansel Adams, Photographs of the Southwest (Boston, 1976), pl. 55

Martha A. Sandweiss, Masterworks of American Photography: The Amon Carter Museum Collection (Birmingham, 1982), pl. 125

Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 1983), cover and p. 41

James Alinder, Ansel Adams 1902-1984 (Carmel: The Friends of Photography, 1984), p. 55

James Alinder and John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams: Classic Images, (Boston, 1985), pl. 32

Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images 1916-1984 (Boston, 1988), p. 142

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., Ansel Adams: The Grand Canyon and the Southwest (Boston, 2000), frontispiece

Therese Mulligan and David Wooters, Photography from 1839 to Today, George Eastman House (Köln, 2000), p. 643

John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams at 100 (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2001), pl. 96

Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 2002), p. 40

Karen Haas and Rebecca Senf, Ansel Adams in the Lane Collection (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005), pl. 37

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs (Boston, 2007), p. 175

Barbara Buhler Lynes, Sandra S. Phillips, and Richard B. Woodward, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities (Boston, 2008), fig. 3 and p. 109

Karen E. Haas, An Enduring Vision: Photographs from the Lane Collection (Boston, 2011), pl. 8

Andrea Gray Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams (Boston, 2012), p. 119 

Rebecca Senf, Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams (New Haven, 2020), fig. 6.15

Shanghai, Shanghai Gallery, People’s Exhibition Hall, Ansel Adams: Photographer, 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, Moonrise: A Tribute, August – November 1991

San Francisco, Ansel Adams Center, The Friends of Photography, 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; Cartersville, Georgia, Booth Western Art Museum, September 2010 – March 2011; 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; San Marcos, Texas, The Wittliff Collections, Texas State University, June – December 2016

The first reproduction of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico was a double-page spread in U. S. Camera Annual 1943. Over the 80 years since Adams captured this iconic image, it has become emblematic of American photography itself, appearing in thousands of publications worldwide. 

The story behind the creation of this famous image has become legendary. On the afternoon of November 1, 1941, Adams, driving near Hernandez, New Mexico, was captivated by the light illuminating the small town and its cemetery. He pulled over, quickly setting up his equipment with the help of his son Michael and fellow photographer Cedric Wright. Adams took the photograph in the fading light without using his light meter, equipped instead with his knowledge of the luminance of the moon. Before he could take a second shot, the sun disappeared behind clouds, altering the light completely.

The present oversized print was the centerpiece of Moonrise: A Tribute, an exhibition held at the Ansel Adams Center, San Francisco, August to November 1991.  The exhibition featured a wide range of materials related to the image,  including Virginia Adams’ personal copy of U. S. Camera Annual 1943 James Alinder’s portrait of Adams with a “straight” and “fine” print of Moonrise, Michael Bishop’s playful photograph Ansel Adams Double Grade A Eggrise, Hernandez, and many other works that paid homage to Adams’ masterpiece.  

‘The printed image has varied over the years; I have sought more intensity of light and richness of values as time goes on.’

Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 1983), p. 42

No two prints of Moonrise are exactly alike. Adams experimented with subtle changes throughout the years, following the risky undertaking of reprocessing the negative in 1948. Later prints of Moonrise expressed darker tonalities in the sky, eventually achieving what was desired by the 1970s. The present print shines with a rich midnight aura and sumptuous contrast indicative of these pursuits.