Ansel Adams

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

Acquired from the above, 2002

Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, The Pageant of History in Northern California (San Francisco, 1954), pl. 41

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., California (Boston, 1997), p. 19

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

San Francisco, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Ansel Adams: One with Beauty, May – September 1987

San Francisco, Ansel Adams Center, Big City: Photographs of San Francisco and the Bay by Ansel Adams, February – May 1992

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

San Francisco from Twin Peaks was made just as a cloud shadow was dramatically crossing City Hall (located nearly at the center of the composition) and Market Street, creating a heavy vertical axis.  It is reproduced across a full double-page spread in The Pageant of History in Northern California, an oversized spiral-bound publication commissioned by the American Trust Company to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their first location in San Francisco.  At this size, many details became very noticeable, particularly a large ‘Bank of America’ sign located where Market Street disappears into The Castro at the lower right quadrant of the image.  Adams later remarked that since the project was commissioned by a competing bank, a retoucher removed the sign from the engraving for publication.  The sign remained visible in the original negative and was treated variously in subsequent printings.  In some, it is heavily burned-in to diminish its appearance.  In others, such as the photograph offered here, it remains bright white, part of the urban landscape of San Francisco in 1952.

Prints of this image are located at The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and San Francisco Museum of Art.