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ANSEL ADAMS
MONUMENTAL CLASSICAL PHOTOGRAPHS March 14 - April 20, 2003 GERALD PETERS GALLERY, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO Sponsored by the Andrew Smith Gallery and the Gerald Peters Gallery Exhibit Dates: March 14 – April 20, 2003 Opening Reception: Friday, March 14 from 5-7 p.m. |
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The Gerald Peters Gallery at 1011 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501 opens a landmark exhibit of monumental photographs of the American West by Ansel Adams (1902-1984) on March 14, 2003. The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Andrew Smith Gallery, Santa Fe. This small collection of monumental and oversize prints has been assembled over a 10 year period.
Ansel Adams is regarded as the greatest landscape photographer of all time. We owe much of our understanding of Western wilderness areas and their preservation to his breathtaking images. Not only was Adams' artistic influence gigantic, so were his mural photographs which he printed in sizes up to 6.5 x 9.5 feet. Adams understood the visual force of monumental photographs. He mastered the process and was regarded as the technical and artistic expert in the field. The exhibition at Gerald Peters Gallery is the first to celebrate Ansel's rare monumental photographs. It includes masterworks such as, "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico," 1942 and "Aspens, Northern New Mexico," [horizontal], 1958, among others. Also on exhibit are historic nineteenth century mammoth plate photographs by Carleton Watkins, Charles Leander Weed, Eadward Muybridge, Frank J. Haynes, and William Henry Jackson. The exhibit continues through April 20, 2003. Photographers had been striving to expand the size of their prints since the invention of the medium in 1839. All early photographic prints on paper were identical in size to their negatives, but soon photographers were experimenting with larger negatives and assembling multiple prints to create large-scale panoramas. Beginning in the 1860s, photographers working in the American West (most notably, Carleton Watkins and William Henry Jackson) were printing from mammoth plate negatives. Today the trend in European and American contemporary art is the making of large scale photographs. Adams began to make mural size photographs in the 1930s. During the Depression mural artwork was a popular way for the U.S. Government to employ artists. Soon private companies and museums were caught up in the excitement of commissioning murals. Photographers took up the challenge and began projecting their negatives into huge enlargements. In 1935 Adams was commissioned to make murals to advertise the benefits of visiting Yosemite in the winter. At that time he also made his first large, three-paneled photographic folding screen. In 1940 he published an article titled, "Photo-Murals," in U.S. Camera, which made him the virtual authority on what he called, "enlargements with a vengeance." In 1941 the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, hired Adams to photograph lands and Native Americans under his department's jurisdiction. Adams intended to make some thirty-six photographic murals to hang on the walls of the Department of the Interior. He hoped that his powerful images hung in an emotionally progressive sequence would positively influence congressmen, lobbyists, and government officials. His job description read, "Photographic Muralist, Grade FCS-19, " and his contract was effective from Oct. 14, 1941 to July 2, 1942. At the same time Adams was saddled with his duties as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art which he had helped found in 1940. Thus, he was unable to start the mural project until June of 1942 when he headed west to make negatives. He planned to photograph in Colorado, Yellowstone, the Tetons, Glacier National Park, Mount Rainier and Crater Lake. Given his late start and the fact that World War II prevented his contract from being renewed, he made a number of now classic photographs, but never finished the mural project for the Department of the Interior. In the 1950s Adams embarked on a series of murals for private commissions, collectors and exhibitions. He undertook a major project for the American Trust Company (later taken over by Wells Fargo Bank) in San Francisco that consisted of mural sized scenes of California mountains, vineyards and hill country. Adams' photographs were printed in the classic book, The Pageant of History in Northern California, with text by Nancy Newhall, published by the American Trust Company in 1954. To make his mammoth prints Adams would project the image onto a wall to which he had adhered photo paper. Some of his images were printed up to 6.5 x 9.5 feet. The technology to make these prints was so cumbersome that Adams used Moulin Studio facilities in San Francisco. Except for the last few years of his life Adams did not sign murals or screens. He felt these large prints should be flush mounted with the frame directly on the edge of the print, leaving no mount board to sign on. Photographs on exhibit include:  "Moonrise, Hernandez, NM"Negative Date: 1941 Print Date: ca. 1970 37.6" x 57.75" AA/1454 Adams' most famous photograph was taken about thirty miles north of Santa Fe near the village of Hernandez located between Espanola and Abiquiu. The details of its making are legendary. Depending on the reference it was either Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, 1941 at about 4 p.m. when Adams saw the extraordinary sight of the full moon and clouds over the Sangre de Cristo range. He rushed to set up his 8x10 camera before the light changed. With only seconds to mentally calculate the correct exposure he released the shutter before the light dimmed. In printing the negative Adams intensified the contrast of the image through a complicated darkroom technique to heighten its romantic and emotional qualities. It is regarded as the most famous photograph ever taken.  "Mt. Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California" Negative Date: 1944 Print Date: later 65.8" x 45.8" AA/1121 During the war Adams was deeply moved by the plight of the Japanese-Americans who had been sent to detention camps like Manzanar in the Owens Valley of eastern California. He made several trips there to photograph the people and the landscape. Having talked to many of the interred Adams wrote: "The enormous backdrop of the Sierra Nevada to the west and the high desert ranges to the east gave the nature-loving Japanese-Americans a certain respite from their mood of isolation and concern for the future." The photograph, "Mt. Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California," 1944, was made on west border of the Manzanar area. Adams photographed the field of boulders and the distant 14,000 ft. peak just as the sun broke through storm clouds. For the mural print Adams cropped the photograph on the right and left sides, making a vertical image that compresses the view of the largest boulders in the foreground and the cloud covered peaks in the distance.  "Yosemite Valley From Inspiration Point, Winter Yosemite National Park"Negative Date: ca. 1940s Print Date: ca. 1954 AA/1455 Adams photographed Inspiration Point many times during the 1930s and early 1940s. This mural was one of a series made in the mid-1950s for the American Trust Company (later the Wells Fargo Bank) for their offices in San Francisco at the site of the present day Transamerica Pyramid. The mural was printed in sections at the Moulin Studios in San Francisco. The immense size of the sections required that they be developed in mammoth trays and then mounted with wheat paste onto Homosote board.  "Aspens, Northern New Mexico" [horizontal]From Portfolio VII, Plate 6, Edition 49/115 Negative Date: 1958 Print Date: 1976 20" x 24" AA/1453 On a crisp autumn day in the mountains north of Santa Fe Adams took his classic photograph of a "cool and aloof and rather stately" aspen grove. He avoided including any part of the sky which would have diminished the luminous foliage. Using filters he enhanced the general contrast of the scene. The white tree trunks, reflecting ambient light, stand out against the dark forest background. This 20" x 24" photograph comes from Portfolio VII which was dedicated by Adams to the noted photography collector, David Hunter McAlpin, one of the founding members of the Photography Department at MOMA.  "Sundown, The Pacific" Negative Date: ca. 1953 Print Date: later 67" x 46" AA/1329 Adams shot this soul-stirring photograph of the Pacific ocean as the setting sun casts fingers of light on the crests of dark waves. The vertical image ranges from shoreline at the base of the photograph to the ocean horizon near the top. The drama of the subject lends itself to a monumental format.  "Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California"Negative Date: 1944 Print Date: ca. 1955 19" x 34.5" (AA/1420) Adams called the area around Lone Pine, California "a land of desolate beauty." According to Adams this photograph was taken in the winter of 1944. It took him four days of getting up very early and driving from Manzanar to Lone Pine before luck brought him a clear sunrise. Once his camera was in place he had more luck when the horse in the meadow turned to show its profile just as the dramatic light was about to change. Behind the horse and trees the Alabama Hills are deep in shadow in the near background. Catching the morning sunlight is the majestic snowcapped Mt. Whitney (14,444 ft.). This mural was purchased directly from Adams in his Yosemite studio in 1955 and held in the same family until 2001. The back of the print mount is adhered to an archival mat board which is adhered to plexiglass. This grand, oversize photograph remains one of Adams' most spectacular images.  "Orchard in Bloom, Santa Clara Valley, Near San Jose"Negative Date: 1950s ca. Print Date: 1954 71.3" x 108" (AA/1442) In this pastoral scene Adams photographed a blooming orchard in a vast and verdant valley; a region of California where cherry, apricot, peach, prune, apple, pear, and fig trees were being cultivated. Rounded hills in the distance patched with sunlight and shadows draw the eye into the distance of this Eden-like setting. Liz Kay |
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