Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park
Photograph
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park
1944
Gelatin silver print
Image: 15 7/16 × 19 in. (39.2 × 48.3 cm)
Mount: 18 7/8 × 24 7/8 in. (48 × 63.2 cm)
Gift of the photographer
1967.0123.0044
Inscriptions mount recto-(signed in pencil) "Ansel Adams"
mount verso-(in ink) "Winter Storm - Yosemite Valley, California"
(rubberstamp with ink inscription) "Photograph by Ansel Adams
131 - 24th Avenue San Francisco Neg. No. 1-YM(?)-86"
mount verso-(in ink) "Winter Storm - Yosemite Valley, California"
(rubberstamp with ink inscription) "Photograph by Ansel Adams
131 - 24th Avenue San Francisco Neg. No. 1-YM(?)-86"
TextThe year 1916 was pivotal in the life of famed American landscape photographer Ansel Adams. He visited Yosemite National Park for the first time with his family and during the trip, received his first camera, a Kodak Brownie. For the rest of his life, Yosemite would serve as Adams’s primary artistic muse and the subject of his most popular photographs. A dedicated pianist early in life, Adams likened his carefully exposed photographic negatives to sheet music that was to be performed and interpreted in the darkroom before a final product, the fine print, could be produced. Clearing Winter Storm is one of Adams’s best-known photographs. Far transcending a typical tourist-made view of the valley, this photograph demonstrates Adams’s keen ability to anticipate many of the dramatic atmospheric conditions that make his work remarkable, as well as his famous technical ability, evident in the astounding range of tonalities and hyperreal sharpness.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
