Lot 1

The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score; the print is the performance. Gertrude Stein wrote that 'there is more space in the United States where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is.' One might add that Ansel Adams, quintessential patriot that he was, was unrivalled when it came to recording this space where nobody is. For Ansel Adams, the creative process of making a photograph was not just a matter of clicking the shutter in front of a vista he found appealing, but also involved his 'visualization' of how to produce a technically flawless print from the resulting negative. Adams' images were notoriously difficult to print and most of his work required great technical rigor, particularly if oversized. The following twenty-five lots demonstrate Adams' colossal talent and his gift for being in the right place at the right time. They include 'fireworks'--magnificent, very rare mural versions of such well-known images as Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada (cover and lot 6), Clearing Winter Storm, (back cover and lot 8) and Aspens, Northern New Mexico (lot 9), as well as more familiar 16 x 20 inch versions of his 'greatest hits', notably Monolith, the Face of Half Dome (lot 2), this print originally in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (lot 1), here given by Ansel to his New York dealer Lee Witkin 'with appreciation.' VARIOUS PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Driving south along the highway, I observed a fantastic scene as we approached the village of Hernandez. In the east, the moon was rising over distant clouds and snowpeaks, and in the west, the late afternoon sun glanced over a south-flowing cloud bank and blazed a brilliant white upon the crosses in the church cemetery. I steered the stationwagon into the deep shoulder along the road and jumped out, scrambling to get my equipment together...With the camera assembled and the image composed and focused, I could not find my Weston exposure meter! Behind me the sun was about to disappear behind the clouds and I was desperate...I had no accurate reading...After the first exposure, I quickly reversed the 8 x 10 film holder to make a duplicate negative...but as I pulled out the slide the sunlight left the crosses and the magical moment was gone forever.

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

Moonrise, Hernandez, Northern New Mexico, 1941

Details

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Moonrise, Hernandez, Northern New Mexico, 1941
gelatin silver print, printed 1973
signed in pencil (on the mount); signed, dated '8-15-1973', inscribed 'For Lee Witkin with appreciation' and title in ink (on the reverse of the mount)
image/sheet: 15½ x 19¼in. (39.4 x 48.8cm.)
mount: 22 x 28in. (56 x 71.2cm.)

Provenance

From Ansel Adams:
to Lee Witkin;
to a Private Collection, New York

Literature

Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Little, Brown and Company, 1983, cover and p. 40; Alinder, ed., Ansel Adams: 1902-1984, Friends of Photography, Untitled 37, 1984, p. 55; Szarkowski, Ansel Adams at 100, Little, Brown and Company, 2001, pl. 96; Stillman, ed. Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs, Little, Brown and Company, 2007, p. 175; Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams: the Photographs and the Man, Little, Brown and Company, 2012, p. 114

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

This 'lucky shot' apparently spawned as many as one thousand prints. This one is especially beautiful and also significant as Adams gave it to Lee Witkin, the influential founder of one of the first galleries devoted to photography in New York City.

More from The Range of Light: Photographs by Ansel Adams

View All