ANSEL ADAMS | Leaves, Valley Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California (Dye-transfer Experiment)

dye-transfer print, mounted, an Eastman Kodak Company 'Visual Research Studio' stamp, with credit and numerical notations in ink on the reverse, partially overmatted, circa 1936, printed circa 1950; framed together with The Unknown Ansel Adams (James Alinder, 1982) and accompanied by an instructions booklet titled Derivations from Color Photographs  (Eastman Kodak Company, 1950) (3)

The photographer to Jeannette Klute, research photographer in charge of the Visual Research Studio of the Color Control Division at the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y. Acquired from the above

This dye-transfer print is in generally excellent condition. The colors remain vibrant and saturated, with no apparent fading. The print is slightly unevenly trimmed along the lower margin edge, and stray graphite marks are visible in the lower margin. The Eastman Kodak stamp on the reverse is numbered Project '16' No. '65' Print No. '3' in ink. The mount and overmat are age-darkened and the reverse of the mount is mildly soiled. There is a dark stain on the left of the overmat, and it is creased at the upper edge of the window. The mount is hinged to modern mat board.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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In the early 1950s, Ansel Adams befriended photographer and researcher Jeannette Klute who had invented a new dye-transfer color process called ‘Derivations.’  This complicated process allowed one to decrease realism in an image by deconstructing, recombining, and/or omitting elements of an original color photograph and layering a photographically produced contour line image. The present print is a ‘Derivation’ after one of Adams’ large-format transparencies.     Accompanying this photograph is Jim Alinder’s 1982 volume The Unknown Ansel Adams.  Its cover is illustrated with the unaltered version of Adams’ photograph, the source image from which the present photograph was created. A booklet outlining the technical details of the ‘Derivation’ process also accompanies this photograph.

At the time of this writing, only one other example of this ‘Derivation’ has been located in the Ansel Adams Archive at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona.