Frozen Lake and Cliffs, Sierra Nevada, California, 1932

Details

ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)
Frozen Lake and Cliffs, Sierra Nevada, California, 1932
gelatin silver print, mounted on board, printed 1973-1977
signed in pencil (mount, recto); titled and dated in ink in photographer's Carmel credit stamp [BMFA Stamp 11], and with Center for Creative Photography & AAPRT stamps (mount, verso)
image/sheet: 9 ½ x 12 3/8 in. (24.1 x 31.3 cm.)
mount: 15 7/8 x 19 5/8 in. (40.3 x 50.4 cm.)

Literature

James Alinder, Ansel Adams: 1902-1984, The Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1984, p. 12.
Ansel Adams and Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, Little, Brown and Co., New York, 1985, p. 147.
Andrea G. Stillman, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images 1916-1984, Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1988, p. 289.
Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Little, Brown and Co., New Haven, 1989, p. 10.
Anne Hammond, Ansel Adams: Divine Performance, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002, fig. 2.7, p. 52.
Karen E. Haas and Rebecca A. Senf, Ansel Adams in the Lane Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005, pl. 62, p. 95.
Andrea G. Stillman (ed.), Ansel Adams In The National Parks, Little, Brown and Co., New York, 2010, pp. 10, 300.
Andrea G. Stillman (ed.), Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man, Little, Brown and Co., New York, 2012, pp. 70, 79.

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Rebecca Jones

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Lot Essay

'While on that 1932 outing, we hiked over Kaweah Gap, where I was struck by the still, icy beauty of partially frozen Precipice Lake and its background, the black base of Eagle Scout Peak. I saw several images quite clearly in my mind and made five variations. The best of the resultant photographs, Frozen Lake and Cliffs, is still very satisfying to me. It has been termed “abstract,” but I do not think any photograph can really be abstract. I prefer the term extract for I cannot change the optical realities, but only manage them in relation to themselves and the format' (Ansel Adams and Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, Little, Brown and Co., New York, 1985, p. 377, p. 145).

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