Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California, 1938 Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California by Ansel Adams, 1938, via Christie’s Thanks to his technical knowledge and quick thinking, Adams was able to capture this image before the sun disappeared.ģ. The contrast gives the gravestones of the small cemetery an eerie glow under the black sky. 15 G filter helped to darken the sky and emphasize the adobe buildings and fall-colored leaves.

With his camera’s back to the sun, Adams captured this twilight scene of Hernandez, a small New Mexico town. This famous photograph was captured a moment before the sunset.

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams, 1941, via MoMA, New York Initially using a yellow filter, he then swapped it for a red filter to darken the sky, brightened the snow, and brought forth all the monumental detail and enormity of Half Dome, making it glow under the black sky.Ģ. Using his Korona camera, Adams captured his iconic photo of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park after a difficult hike. This was Adams’ first photograph that gathered the attention of the public and the art world. When speaking of Ansel Adams’ photography, the most famous is Monolith, the Face of Half Dome. Monolith, The Face Of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley By Ansel Adams, 1927 Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, California by Ansel Adams, 1927, via the University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor

These prints are placed beside others made earlier in Adams's career, providing an opportunity to see how his printing style changed over the decades, while also offering an understanding of how the artist reflected back on his work in order to shape its future reception.1. This exhibition from the Department of Photographs collection draws from a recent acquisition of a Museum Set Edition of Fine Prints donated by Carol Vernon and Robert Turbin. Many of the photographs he was producing at this time were for the Museum Set Edition of Fine Prints, a select group of photographs chosen from thousands of negatives to represent the best work from his six-decade career. In the last five years of his life, Adams spent part of his mornings printing in the darkroom and part of his afternoons writing his autobiography. He was also, in the 1970s, considering and actively addressing the issue of what his legacy would be. Devoted to the artistic potential of the natural environment as well as to its preservation, Ansel Adams became one of the best-known photographers in the world.

Ansel adams tetons