ANSEL ADAMS | REDWOODS, RICHARDSON GROVE, CALIFORNIA (DETAIL)

The date of this negative has long been a subject of debate. While it has often been dated to the 1960s, it was included years earlier as a lavish full-page illustration in Nancy Newhall’s seminal 1954 volume The Pageant of History in Northern California. In 1983, when editing the final version of his technical manual The Print, Adams chose to include this image – illustrating the full negative and dating it ‘c. 1932’. Of this image, Adams wrote, ‘This is an exceedingly difficult negative to print. I made the negative before the Zone System had been formulated, and the rule was simply to reduce negative development for a high-contrast subject. . .I dodged the shadowed tree trunks with an oval wand . . . covering each tree trunk from top to bottom . . .The dodging must begin somewhat above the top of the tree trunks and end below the bottom, otherwise these areas will appear too dark. Slight overlapping of adjacent areas is essential for consistent effect’ (The Print, p. 132). The luminous, mural-sized print offered is the result not only of Adams’ unparalleled eye behind the camera but also his exacting practice in the darkroom.