Ansel Adams’ “Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake” is one of the defining images of the Alaskan Wilderness. Ansel made this image when he, accompanied by his son Michael, set out in 1947 on a Guggenheim Fellowship to document the majestic landscapes of Alaska.
Nestled in Yosemite Valley at The Ansel Adams Gallery is a new exhibition of Yosemite photography: an exploration of the park’s striking beauty in winter as captured by our current group of full-time instructors and staff members. This exhibition is now open to the public, and will run through February 22, 2020. It is a special occasion to share this collection of work, as it offers us a lens into the park’s wonders from those who call Yosemite their home. We invite you to explore their perspectives on photography, teaching in the park, and their unique take on communicating the power and majesty of Yosemite through the arts.
Learn more about our staff photographers and the Yosemite classes and private guided tours they lead throughout the year.
El Capitan, photograph by staff photographer Michael Wise
Brittany Colt, Staff Photographer
Brittany began teaching photography at The Ansel Adams Gallery in 2018. In her work, she focuses on small details in nature. Abstract photography has become her favorite because it challenges Brittany to capture elements in a unique way. She finds these abstractions just as beautiful as the icons that engulf Yosemite. Paying attention to lines, shapes, white space and patterns, helps her to focus on the design of the image. These details drive and push her to create worlds that may be complicated, but elementally beautiful. When teaching, Brittany loves to challenge her students and expand their minds not only technically, but creatively as well. She pushes her students to pay attention to the overall design of the composition all the while giving them the tools to “see” the light. Learn more about her story.
Photograph by Brittany Colt | Yosemite National Park, California
Dillon Engstrom, Staff Photographer
Dillon and his family moved to Yosemite in 2018 when he began working as a staff photographer at the gallery. Here, Dillon describes his artistic process: “I love the way that light interacts with the world around us; creating color, shape, texture, depth. I try to find opportunities that really enhance these qualities. The play of light and dark fascinates me the most. This is what makes me stop to look. Making a composition is then me responding to the moment in front of me and creating a frame that encapsulates what the scene is trying to tell me. Then when I bring the images back to the computer, I try to remember the scene and use the editing programs to bring out the beauty locked within the image file. The end result is my interpretation of the world that I see! Learn more about Dillon’s story.
Bridalveil Fall by Dillon Engstrom | Yosemite National Park, California
Blake Johnston, Staff Videographer
Blake is a cinematographer and photographer from San Diego, CA. He started filming skateboarding videos with his friends in High School, always looking up to professional skateboard films and enjoying the positive experiences the skateboarders had with each other portrayed through video. He began pursuing video more seriously with the Cinema Conservatory at Canyon Crest Academy. Moving to Yosemite was a change of pace and subject matter for Blake. Seeking new inspiration, he made Yosemite his home in October 2018 as a dishwasher. He didn’t know how long he’d be there—all he knew was that dishwashing was his excuse to film and photograph such a magnificent place for a good portion of the year. Eventually he landed a seasonal job with The Ansel Adams Gallery, where he is using his creative vision to make videos that offer an intimate view of our photography education experiences.
Yosemite Valley, Winter by Blake Johnston | Yosemite National Park, CA
Kirk Keeler, Previous Staff Photographer
Kirk moved to Yosemite in 2010 to immerse himself in the landscape of the famous Sierra Nevada destination with the goal to photograph it as much as possible. Kirk acquired the job as staff photographer at The Ansel Adams Gallery in 2011, where he worked until November 2019. Working at the gallery not only helped Kirk hone his photographic skills, but helped foster a new talent – that of a photography teacher! “I had no idea how much I loved to teach”, explains Kirk. “It made my day when I saw the participants of my classes or one-on-one sessions have that ‘A-ha moment’ when they grasped a new camera skill or learned something new or contrary about Ansel Adams.” For Kirk, the best part about working at the Gallery was access to Yosemite for his photographic pursuits. Kirk’s photography has been featured at The Ansel Adams Gallery, in addition to Yosemite Renaissance, Stellar Gallery in Oakhurst, CA and The Wild & Scenic Festival in Nevada City, CA.
Oak Tree, Blizzard by Kirk Keeler | Yosemite National Park, California
Christine Loberg, Staff Photographer
Tremendously passionate about photography and nature, Christine has made it her mission and life-long goal to inspire and teach the next generation of nature photographers. Christine, a native Californian, has worked in photography stores, photo studios and photo labs to increase her photography knowledge. Developing a love for nature, she became involved with The Sierra Club, making frequent visits to Yosemite. It was during one of these visits that she met Ansel Adams, and then in 1985 decided to accept a job working as a lab technician in Yosemite Valley. Christine is our most senior staff photographer having worked for The Ansel Adams Gallery for many years while also working as a seasonal Ranger for the interpretive division in Yosemite National Park. Learn more about her story.
Half Dome in Snow by Christine Loberg | Yosemite National Park, CA
Mike Reeves, Staff Photographer
Mike is an outdoor educator in Yosemite, reaching thousands of photographers in classes and workshops where his passion for the park is evident. Describing Yosemite, he says “Yosemite has always been an escape for me. The powerful waterfalls and swirling winds were always able to cleanse me of whatever troubles me. Now I try to go deeper and deeper into the wilderness when I am able. The backcountry has always had a wonderful, unspoiled quality to it. I hope my photographs can communicate how large and powerful this place is. I hope they are a call for others to come enjoy and help preserve it as well.” His first serious photo workshop was in 2009 and has enjoyed the company of many of the best Yosemite photographers who have helped him hone his craft ever since. Learn more about Mike’s story.
Winter Sunset, Tunnel View by Mike Reeves | Yosemite National Park, CA
Evan Russel, Gallery Curator
Evan began working at The Ansel Adams Gallery as a Staff Photographer, where he helped to develop the photography workshop and guiding programs within the park. He now works as the Gallery Curator, operating exhibitions in Yosemite Valley such as this. In his artist statement, Evan describes his approach to creating: “Since I was young, photography has acted as the purveyor of voice and revolution. As a child, it was the first tool I can remember at my disposal that existed outside of the rigid world of ‘Correct vs. Incorrect;’ there were no boundaries in that photogenic world and — the notions of aperture, shutter and film speeds aside — could be operated at creative will to any end. And as a result, it has evolved into a language and enunciation of curiosity. And this curiosity has not abated as I have grown older. As such, I have never limited myself in style or content. Rather, I photograph what I see, when I see and how I see it, waffling between modes of presentation along the way, continuing to resist an urge to codify or set up boundaries within or outside of my work.”
Rolling Fog, Bridalveil by Evan Russel | Yosemite National Park, CA
Michael Wise, Staff Photographer & Curatorial Assistant
Michael Wise is a staff photographer and the curatorial assistant at The Ansel Adams Gallery. He describes his creative journey: “I never thought that I would call myself an artist. Certainly my conservative Pennsylvania Dutch upbringing discouraged a creative nature as a means for living. The unpredictable path that led me to fill the position of Staff Photographer and curatorial assistant at The Ansel Adams Gallery eight years ago was full of unusual directions. In short, my prior history involved paying the bills with commercial photography and university teaching. This unfamiliar gallery and national park lifestyle represented a dedicated, non monetized purpose in photographing simply as self expression and emotion….Over the years I have been successfully progressing in the embracement of my uneasy creative process. I am becoming aware of how the light affects me in ways that can not be described with words. I no longer try to control what is presented to me. There is no analysis of the lines, shapes, and tones that command the image design. And occasionally I am rewarded with a day that allows me to communicate my feelings and imagination through visual art.” Learn more about Michael’s story.
Bridalveil Fall by Michael Wise | Yosemite National Park, CA
(The Ansel Insider)
Virginia and Azaleas, Yosemite National Park, 1927
Virginia Best and Ansel Adams met in Yosemite in 1921. It was during one of Ansel’s first summers in the park, and as an enthusiastic young musician at the time, his time in the mountains posed a dilemma: where to practice his music? If Ansel wanted to fulfill his dreams of becoming a concert pianist, taking a three-month hiatus every summer would not do. As fortune would have it, that summer Ansel was introduced to Harry Best, the owner of Best’s Studio, who kindly allowed him to practice on his old Chickering square piano. Ansel Hall, the first naturalist of the National Park System, made the introduction, and his son Roger is still great friends with Michael and Jeanne Adams, Ansel Adams’ son 100 years later.
Harry Best had a seventeen-year-old daughter named Virginia, who had a beautiful contralto voice and thought about planning a career as a classical singer. Ansel became enamored with more than just the Chickering piano when he began spending his time practicing in Virginia’s company. In his autobiography Ansel recalls: “We found considerable mutual interests in music, in Yosemite, and it turned out, in each other.”
Virginia Best with a friendly Bear, Yosemite Valley, California, c. 1925 (Collection of Michael and Jeanne Adams)
Having spent most of summers of her childhood in Yosemite, Virginia knew the landscape well and shared her knowledge of its wonders with Ansel. The two spent more and more time together, and shared a reverence for both the grandeur and delicacy of the natural world all around them. As Yosemite underwent the ever-growing commercialization we see to this day, Virginia and Ansel confided in one another their dismay for development at the cost of the degradation of their beloved wild spaces. Said Ansel, “From the first years of friendship, I felt a rightness about the two of us. We were comfortable together.”
In the winter of 1927, Ansel arrived to celebrate the New Year of 1928 with Virginia. It was then, after six years off and on of courting, that Ansel officially proposed and Virginia accepted. The two had gone back and forth on their engagement; exchanging letters and visits all the while. Ansel wanted to be more sure of his career before an official wedding celebration, and thought they were too young to be taken seriously. On January 2, 1928, just three days after the proposal, they were married at Best’s Studio in Yosemite Valley with family and close friends. Ansel recalled the night:
“Virginia did not have time to buy a wedding dress and so she wore her best dress, which happened to be black. With perhaps a trace of scorn for tradition, along with a coat and tie, I wore knickers and my trusty basketball shoes.”
Virginia and Ansel’s wedding day, January 2, 1928, in front of Harry Cassie Best painting
The events of the evening made for quite an adventurous wedding night. First, while he was putting chains on Harry Best’s Dodge—loaned as the honeymoon getaway car—best friend and best man Cedric Wright lost the ring Ansel’s parents had entrusted to his care. He found it in the slush under the car just in time for the ceremony. Next, Virginia, Ansel, Cedric and friend Ernst Bacon headed out of Yosemite Valley towards Berkeley, when on their way they had a flat tire. The jack would not fit under the car so they had to uproot a nearby mailbox post to use as a lever. Wrote Ansel, “The tire was exchanged, the mailbox post set back in its hole, and we continued on to Berkeley, arriving at Cedric’s unheated home at midnight. Our bed was a roll-away, but we were so weary that it made no difference to us that night.”
After their marriage, Ansel’s career—which had shifted to photography—began to take off. It was through Virginia that Yosemite became a constant in his life, a place he eventually made famous through his photographs of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, Merced River. At the time, the only residents of Yosemite were expected to be employed there, making a livelihood, or the family members of those who were doing so. Thus, Ansel’s rather constant presence was legitimate. It also afforded him opportunities of access in all times of day and night and all seasons—essential for really knowing a place.
Harry Best in front of Best’s Studio in Yosemite National Park, which still stands today as The Ansel Adams Gallery
It was 1936 when Virginia’s father suddenly passed. She inherited Best’s Studio, and for 36 years, ran what is now The Ansel Adams Gallery. In the process of running the family business, Virginia helped give her husband the wherewithal for him to do his photographic work. Virginia and Ansel wanted to sell high quality merchandise rather than stocking cheap curios as Yosemite souvenirs. It was through this new business model that the gallery began selling a series of Ansel Adams photographs called “special edition prints.” Sales of these prints, as well as profits from Southwestern jewelry, handcrafts, rugs and ceramics, provided a steady income so that Ansel might travel to pursue his photography. Virginia accompanied Ansel on a good deal of his travels, especially traveling to the Southwest to establish lasting partnerships with Indian traders and artisans whose work she represented and sold.
Ansel Adams, “Dogwoods,” Yosemite Special Edition Photograph from the series started in 1958. Exclusively from The Ansel Adams Gallery, these gelatin silver prints are handcrafted by Ansel’s last assistant Alan Ross.
Virginia’s hard work supported both her growing family, which included son Michael and daughter Anne, and also financed the publication of two of her husband’s books, “My Camera in the National Park,” and “My Camera in Yosemite.” She was also gracious, and with a knack for entertaining visitors and making them feel welcome, Virginia nurtured a community that surrounded The Ansel Adams Gallery. The studio was a fun hub of cultural activity in Yosemite Valley, bringing together mountaineer friends, artists, and musicians who were talented and loved to party together. Virginia and Ansel’s children, Michael and Anne, would sometimes sneak down and sit out of view on the stairs and listen to music and happy friends late at night.
Life then was pretty slow. Virginia had some bells on the front door that alerted her that someone had entered the studio while she was at home upstairs. She would give them 10 or 15 minutes to see what was there and then she’d go down and help them out. Jeanne Adams remembers their family at the dining room table having lunch and strangers coming up and through the house to use the bathroom. The space was friendly, simple, primitive, and invited people in as there were not many services available to the visitor at that time. One of the distinguishing features of Virginia and Ansel’s life in Yosemite was their inclusiveness, that regardless of possible frictions between “company” and “government,” Best’s Studio and the hospital were always friendly and easy places to be and socialize.
Anne, Virginia, and Michael, c. 1941
For the most part, Virginia was content to be in the background. A bit camera shy and according to an article in the LA Times, “not generally at ease with reporters,” she once summed up her contribution by saying simply, “I guess I’m the one who just tried to keep things going.” But Virginia did more than that—she nurtured a space with undeniable goodwill, one that still celebrates the arts and the environment in the heart of Yosemite, and which is enjoying its 117th year in operation.
Beyond The Ansel Adams Gallery, Virginia was an active environmentalist and served on the board of directors of the Sierra Club from 1931-33 when her son Michael was born. Then, Ansel ran for the board member seat and won and continued for decades. Virginia was also a Trustee of the Yosemite Natural History Association, and a mountaineer. She has been credited with making the first ascent by a woman of a route on Mt. Whitney in the Kaweah area in what is now Sequoia National Park. It is with Virginia’s guidance and roots in Yosemite, steadfast care for the family business, and lifetime support of Ansel’s work that we have grown to know so well and love Yosemite National Park and the American West.
Virginia (second from the left) with friends during a Sierra Club Outing. Courtesy of the Adams Family memorabilia archives.
Ansel Adams, left, and best friend Cedric Wright (far right, playing the violin) on an early Sierra Club trip. Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives
Have you ever ventured out on a day trip in Yosemite? Found a trail that took you a little further out from other visitors? To go even deeper into the wilderness The Sierra Club has been organizing outings on the trails within Yosemite (and beyond) since 1901.
The Club’s first president, John Muir, reasoned, “if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.”
Joseph LeConte, a close friend and supporter of John Muir, followed his suit in exploring, climbing, mapping, and protecting Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. LeConte was an early member of the Sierra Club and served on its board of directors from 1892-1898. After his sudden death in Yosemite on the eve of the first Sierra Club High Trip in 1901, the Club chose to remember him by building LeConte Memorial Lodge. The lodge is now called the Yosemite Conservation Heritage Center.
VIEW ANSEL ADAMS CATALOGFrom his first official experiences with the Sierra Club in 1927 through his final year as a board member in 1971, Ansel Adams cherished these outings. It was on these trips that he developed lifetime friendships over days of hiking, and nights of entertainment. These weeks of hiking and exploring vast wilderness inspired the settings for many of Ansel’s revered vintage photographs.
Ansel trekking through the high country with his burro. Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives
Sierra Club outing members costumed for a production of “The Trudgin Women,” a mock green tragedy produced by Ansel Adams and humorously presented on one of the outings. Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives.
Ansel’s first participation in the outings in 1923 was the result of his friendship with Cedric Wright, who invited him to join the Sierra Club to the northern areas of the park. Also a photographer, Wright became Ansel’s mentor and best friend for decades.
Once hired on as the staff photographer for future outings, Ansel spent a good piece of each year in Yosemite with the Sierra Club. While on a month-long outing to Kings River High Sierra, he missed the birth of his son Michael by two days. The packtrain that delivered news from the Yosemite Valley was anything but instantaneous, as Ansel noted in his autobiography “being in the High Sierra was literally being out of this world.” When he did arrive, both baby and mother were in good health. Virginia also participated in earlier outings with the Sierra Club, and served on its board of directors from 1932-4.
Virginia Best Adams (second from left) and Club members enjoying a respite of cool waters on a Summertime outing. Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives.
Ansel’s first portfolio of prints was made as mementos to fellow hikers from an outing culminating at Mount Resplendent in 1928. He sold them for thirty dollars each. The portfolios proved so popular that he produced others during 1929, 1930 and 1932 High Country outings.
Throughout, the mission of the outings was to expose enthusiasts to the great wilderness and thereby find meaning and an approach to its preservation.
“Down Bishop Pass,” Original Ansel Adams Gelatin Silver Photograph
From the 1930 Sierra Club Outing
John Muir’s call to “climb the mountains and get their good tidings” has been followed by Sierra Club members since the organization’s start, and the pursuit of this goal has played a key role in shaping the Club’s history.
Years before the founding of the Sierra Club, many of its future leaders and supporters were traveling the mountains of California and sharing with others the wonders they found there. In 1889 Muir embarked on an excursion in northern Yosemite with Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of the influential Century Magazine. Sitting around a campfire at Soda Springs in Tuolumne Meadows, the two planned a campaign for a “Yosemite National Park”—a campaign that succeeded the following year when Congress established the park.
But Muir and Johnson soon realized that an organization would be necessary to ensure Yosemite’s protection. Soon thereafter they were instrumental in the formation of The Sierra Club. Their charter was:
“to explore, enjoy, and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them,” and “to enlist the support and cooperation of the people and government in preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada.”
Outing campsite | Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives
Since the formation of the Club and its early outings, the original large-scale group trips have been replaced with “no trace camping.” When previously trees were cut down for nightly bonfires, today we pack in what we need and take little from mother nature. And we pack it all right back out. Burros no longer haul enormous latrines up mountainsides—we carry waste out in waste paper. We camp a certain distance from a lake, and our imprint is much smaller.
1927 Outing campsite | Photo courtesy of the Adams family memorabilia archives
If you’ve experienced Yosemite’s impressive and stunning landscape on an adventure of your own, or as part of a Club outing, you’ve witnessed first-hand the extraordinary ecosystem that is the Sierra. If you’ve observed the wonders of this landscape in photographs— those of Ansel Adams’ or others—you’ve found another way to partake in and appreciate these wild spaces. As lovers of nature and beauty, it’s our responsibility to protect the Sierra, either as guardians of Yosemite National Park each time we visit, or by donations and congressional action each time it is threatened.
In the words of the Sierra Club, the earth needs our help now more than ever. Together let’s defend our wild spaces.
Edward Taylor Parsons Photo Collection
Edward Taylor Parsons (1861-1914) served as William E. Colby’s outing assistant and as a High Trip photographer from 1901 until his death in 1914.
Origins and Early Outings
Text from The History of the Sierra Club: 1892-1970, by Michael P. Cohen, published by Sierra Club Books in 1988.
Words of the Wild
Recent Newsletter of the Sierra Club’s California/Nevada Wilderness Committee
Joseph Laconte
Helped in mapping the John Muir Trail
Ansel Adams and Burro in the High Country, Photo Courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
“I held Ansel’s ass while he made that picture!”
What’s that again? That statement remained a joke between Ansel Adams and his lifelong friend Herold Seville for decades. The two took a venturesome trip to High Sierra in 1923. While photographing Banner Peak – Thousand Island Lake, Ansel tasked Harold with holding his reliable donkey “Mistletoe” while he managed his camera equipment.
With Harold’s firm hold on the burro, Ansel captured his iconic photograph of the serene lake, luminous peak, and weathered sky. In his autobiography, Ansel recounts details from the trip:
“I made many drab shots and suffered some embarrassing failures.” But one image proved an exception. “I can recall the excitement of the scene,” he went on. “It seemed that everything fell into place in the most agreeable way: rock, cloud, mountain, and exposure … This picture still has a unity and magic that very few others suggested in those early years.”
Banner Peak – Thousand Island Lake, Original Vintage Ansel Adams Photograph, Signed “A. E. Adams”
Almost 90 years after Ansel and Harold’s 1923 trip, Michael (Ansel’s son) and Matthew (his grandson) ventured to Thousand Island Lake on a mission with National Geographic.
Their goal? To uncover Ansel’s “tripod hole” or vantage point from which the photograph was taken. In the published story “The Mountains that Made the Man” author Peter Esseck describes the expedition, where the team successfully discovered the point for Ansel’s final photograph.
Banner Peak and Thousand Island Lake is situated in what is now known as The Ansel Adams Wilderness. Originally protected as wilderness by the 1964 Wilderness Act, it was first called the Minarets Wilderness. Renamed and expanded to honor Ansel Adams in 1985, it spreads over 230,258 acres, ranging in altitude from about 7,000 feet to 14,000 feet.
Ansel would be thrilled to know that the peaks and lakes of his 1923 expedition would someday be named in his honor. #Anselwouldbeproud
Says Michael:
“He loved the Sierra, and worked tirelessly to protect these special areas of wilderness.”
As an avid outdoorsman, Ansel Adams was no stranger to the hardships of camping in the backcountry. Far from the creature comforts of home, hiking miles upon miles each and every day, even America’s most famous outdoorsman could find himself overwhelmed. But for Ansel, the harsh realities of the outdoors were not merely a source of frustration. They were a source of great humor as well.
Which is why on the Sierra Club’s 1932 High Trip—the High Trips were the Club’s large annual excursions into the mountains of the American West—Ansel decided to debut his One-Act mock-Greek Tragedy, Exhaustos.
Cast members of “Exhaustos” fully costumed for the performance.
Photo courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
The 1932 trip proved itself exceptionally difficult, even for the most hardened campers. Frozen water pails, piles of snow, and elevations north of 12,000 feet made the going slow and tough. But, as a means of lifting the group’s spirits, Ansel collected the campers to put on a production of Exhaustos: A Lyric Tragedy.
Ansel did not admit to writing the play, rather insisting that he was merely its translator—a nod to his farce that it was some long-forgotten text of Euripides or Aristophanes. The play, containing “One-Act, Thank God” was performed by the campers themselves around the evening campfire.
Exhaustos tells the story of King Dehydros—ruler of the land of Exhaustos—and his antagonist, Rhykrispos, a would-be king from a different camp. The play pokes fun at the many discomforts of life on the High Trip—from the banality of beans and hardtack, to the annoying ants in the King’s bed. Says the King:
By Hades! We have fallen in the ways of overeating!
But tomorrow we shall climb the ten thousand feet Our Glory must continue over-rising!
Tell Ali to groom Pegasus, my Mule!
And shake the ants from out Dehydros bed.
Last night they drove me wild.
Replacing the traditional Greek Chorus with the “Chorus of Weary Men,” and the “Chorus of Sunburnt Women,” the play offered campers a cathartic laugh at their own discomfort. The complaints of the campers registered dramatically in unison:
Woe! Woe!
Our soles have parted from our boots
Our pants are torn in much to many places.
Woe! Woe!
Last night it rained. Aihr, Aihr
We are too tired to even wash our faces
Woe! Woe! forever Woe!
TAKE TWO: A similar photo as above, but this time with Ansel Adams dressed as the Spirit of the Itinerary in the foreground. Sierra Club High Trip, California, 1932. Image from “Looking at Ansel Adams” by Andrea Stillman
Costumes were derived from what could be found on hand. Ansel himself played the “Spirit of the Itinerary”—perhaps the Greeks would have called him Fate—with a bedsheet toga, an ivy crown, and a lyre fashioned from found wood and fishing line.
With Pegasus, his trusty mule, by his side, Dehydros finally squares off against Rhykrispos at the Summit of North Palisade. When King Dehydros finally dies—it is a Greek tragedy after all—by falling on his ice pick, the Spirit of the Itinerary offers this parting monologue:
Thus ends the sad epic of Dehydros the King
Who ruled Great Exhaustos, his glory we’ll sing.
But Destiny favored the reign of a Nomad
Who made Clymenextra depart home and go bad.
Now this is the Moral, match men, envy and food
Lest you be disgraced by a wandering Dude.
Sound advice.
The Ansel Adams Gallery is pleased to offer a rare vintage photograph of “A Grove of Tamarack Pine,” one of very few soft focus images known to have been made in Ansel Adams’ photographic career.
In September 1921, Ansel Adams set out on a ten-day excursion with friends into the Lyell Fork of the Merced River in the vast High Sierra. It was on this very trip when Ansel captured his dream-like photograph of “A Grove of Tamarack Pine” in the soft focus style hardly ever seen again in the entirety of his career.
“A Grove of Tamarack Pine,” Vintage Kodak Vellum Photograph by Ansel Adams. Negative Date: 1921. Print Date: 1927. Originally titled “Lodgepole Pines”
Ansel and friends headed out from Merced Lake and made the ascent from the McClure Fork Trail to the junction of the Isberg Trail. The crew stopped to camp in a stream-side clearing at high elevation close to the rim of the Merced Canyon. In a piece Ansel wrote for the 1922 Sierra Club Bulletin, he describes their campsite view:
“At this point, a marvelous panorama is obtained⸺all the peaks of the Merced group are in full view⸺but the most startling feature is the vista of Lake Washburn, over two thousand feet directly below.”
Ansel Adams resting beneath his tent during an early High Country trip.
Photo courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
Following this marvelous vista, Ansel and pack continued their ascent. They made it all the way to the summit of Mount Florence and then onwards to the Lyell Fork of the Merced. There they scrambled, burros included, up the rugged canyon, maneuvering carefully to escape windfalls. In less than a mile, the canyon’s ruggedness disappeared and opened up into a tranquil and level meadow.
It was there in that meadow, at 9,000 feet elevation, where Ansel captured his image of “A Grove of Tamarack Pine,” altering the scene before him with a soft focus lens. The soft focus lens refracted the highlights, producing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon.
Ansel photographing at the summit of Mt. Lyell, early Sierra Club High Country trip.
Photo courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
Ansel’s first photographs were published in the Sierra Club Bulletin within a year of making “A Grove of Tamarack Pine.” It was in these early years when the artist experimented with pictorialism, engaging soft focus, diffused light, and other techniques.
Despite a dramatic shift in his career in 1925 towards sharp focus, heightened contrast, and darkroom craftsmanship, in a biography of Ansel Adams, author Mary Alinder notes:
“His whole life long, Ansel had a soft spot in his heart for [A Grove of Tamarack Pine] and the memories it held.”
Photograph taken on Ansel’s 1952 return to the Lyell Fork of the Merced River on a pack trip with his wife Virginia, and their children Michael and Anne. This was Ansel’s last pack trip utilizing burros to carry his gear and camp material. Photograph courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives.
In 1932, Ansel Adams set out with Sierra Club on their annual trip to Yosemite’s high country. Even in summertime, the high sierra can still be found rimmed with icy cliffs and snowy peaks. Equipped with lighter clothing for warm days and sturdy boots for slippery climbs, Ansel and crew scrambled over the vast high country, stopping at favorite spots along the way.
Ansel leading mule over snow in an annual Sierra Club High Trip. Photograph courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
As the Sierra Club was passing Precipice Lake, just before crossing the Kaweah Gap into the Kern River drainage, Ansel took several photographs of the lake with ice on its surface. It was here that he captured “Frozen Lake & Cliffs,” his favorite of a series of five iterations.
“Frozen Lake and Cliffs” Original Gelatin Silver Photograph by Ansel Adams. Negative: 1932. Print Date: 1950
Ansel took the photograph while Virginia and girlfriends paddled about in the still waters of the lake, which was dotted with patches of melting ice. Cedric Wright, Ansel’s best friend, had set up his own camera quite near Ansel’s. He was later to exclaim that he was shocked to see Ansel’s image, so very different and much more beautiful from what he himself had seen.
Ansel Adams (left) and Cedric (far right, playing the violin) on Sierra Club trip. Photo courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
“Frozen Lake and Cliffs” is one of the earliest abstract photographs made directly from nature.
In Mary Alinder’s biography of Ansel Adams, she describes his composition:
“Mirrored ghostly upon the inky waters, a shattered black cliff descends into a partially frozen lake. The reflection is separated from its source by a band of white ice, a crumpled crust of grayed snow, and a tumble of scree.”
Visit Precipice Lake today and you’ll find it hard to visualize Ansel’s photograph in the surrounding landscape. He captured it with a keen eye, extracting his composition from an elegant nook in a sweeping scene. When Ansel’s daughter-in-law, Jeanne, asked him what he considered his most sophisticated image, Ansel replied, “Frozen Lake & Cliffs.”
The Ansel Adams Gallery is pleased to offer “Lake Tenaya” special edition photograph, along with a rare version signed by Ansel Adams. The vintage print has been sold.
Ansel’s image of Tenaya Lake captures the soul of one of the grandest landscapes of Yosemite. It provides an expansive view that places the viewer squarely on site. Ansel took this photograph when access to the lake was via a narrow and winding road. Getting there with hundreds of pounds of camera equipment was quite the adventure.
Experts have traditionally dated the vintage version of this photograph circa 1946, but new evidence offers a different date—at least six years earlier.
“Tenaya Lake, Mt. Conness” Vintage Ansel Adams Photograph, ca. 1940
Ansel was notorious for not recording negative dates, an oversight which troubles collectors still today. Through x-ray fluorescence analysis, the gallery determined that this particular print could have been made no later than 1940.
How do we know?
Ansel began to use selenium toning as a means of hardening the surface of his prints in 1940 and used it consistently for the rest of his career. The latest analysis shows no trace of selenium. Most likely, the negative dates to 1937, when Ansel photographed the area with his friend and colleague Edward Weston, or possibly several years later when he was working on images for a sequel to the children’s book “Michael and Anne in Yosemite Valley,” published in 1940.
Tenaya Lake, Mt. Conness is a phenomenal example of Ansel’s Yosemite photography.
Lake Tenaya, one of the true jewels of the Sierra Nevada, lies nestled between rolling domes and steep escarpments of granite. Its pristine, iridescent waters invite visitors to pause and memorize its beauty. The jumping off point to Sunrise and May Lake High Sierra Camps, the lake offers hikers several trails into the wilderness above Yosemite Valley.
Michael Adams and Ansel Adams, Tenaya Lake, Yosemite. Print from a Kodacolor negative. Courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives.
This newly-surfaced vintage print offers a window into the sublime of the Sierra that could only have been made through the lens of the artist himself.
“It is difficult to explain the magic: to lie in a small recess of granite matrix of the Sierra and watch the progress of dusk to night, the incredible brilliance of the stars, the waning of the glittering sky into dawn…And always that cool dawn wind that I believe to be the prime benediction of the Sierra. These qualities to which I still deeply respond were distilled into my pictures over the decades. I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.” – From Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, 1985
By the summer of 1920 Ansel Adams, then 18, had found his passion in the photographic landscapes of Yosemite National Park. With the support of his family, Ansel spent the next four summers as the custodian of the Sierra Club’s LeConte Memorial Lodge. This experience awarded him the opportunity to go deep into the trails, waterfalls and cliffs of the park with his gear and evolving style in tow.
Ansel Adams in Le Conte Lodge window, 1920. Yosemite National Park
Photo courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
Around the same time, Ansel began his lifelong habit of letter writing. Many of his letters can be found in the thoughtfully edited compilation “Ansel Adams, Letters 1916-1984.” Those first years in Yosemite are chronicled in his frequent letters to his family.
On June 8, 1920, during Ansel’s first year at LeConte, he wrote a soaring update to his father Charles Adams. Along with the obvious joy of his time in the park, Ansel detailed the first take on what would become his lifelong philosophy of photography as an artform:
“I am more than ever convinced that the only possible way to interpret the scenes hereabout is through an impressionistic vision.”
Ansel was not drawn to strictly representational photography. Instead, he found his philosophical thesis in an abstract and imaginative output. Ansel describes this imaginative output as “suggestive and impressionistic…in the representation of material things.” The description of his evolving process is laid out in the letter to his father. It illustrates a pivotal moment and profound realization that would inform the future of his career.
Diamond Cascade in Tenaya Canyon, Photograph by Ansel Adams, 1920
In an enclosed photo of Diamond Cascade in the Tenaya Canyon, Adams describes contrasting approaches to photographing water. When up close it is “delicate and airy” and when seen in mass it can assume “great strength and power.”
“To interpret through dynamics of line and tone instead of form. It’s all in the head anyway, so why not employ mental effects…”
“With my Father,” Yosemite, c. 1920
Ansel Adams and his father Charles H. Adams, Photo Courtesy of the Adams Family Memorabilia Archives
Ansel finished off that summer with his new Graflex camera at his side. Through his photographic experiments, and documented in the letters, he continued to evolve his creative philosophy. Follow along with his letters, and you will also find a young man discovering his voice and defining his philosophies through a constant, heartfelt dialog with his family.
To learn about more of Ansel’s early works in Yosemite, see: Ansel’s Teenage Years: Largely Unknown Images
