Ansel Adams 1902-1984

Acquired from the photographer, 1980

Carmel, Center for Photographic Art, Ansel Adams: From the Private Collection of Margaret Weston, July - September 1995

Other prints of this image:

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

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

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

Andrea Gray Stillman, ed., 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

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

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

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 then 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.