Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley

Silver gelatin, mounted. View of mountains and sky. Sky is cloudy and there is low fog around the mountains. Tall peak, right, lower peaks in the distance. Bushes and trees in foreground. Signed ink, (recto: bottom right corner). Verso: Adams stamp, handwritten title, ink, top center. "RSN 82532R32" handwritten, pencil, bottom right.

Adams took many photographs over the years at this spot, New Inspiration Point, in Yosemite National Park. Though he loved the sweeping vista afforded by the point, precarious cliffs, thick lines of trees and rock formations dictated the camera’s exact position. On this early December day, a clearing storm resulted in a dynamic and powerful image. “Weather, however spectacular to the eye, may present difficult conditions and compositions,” Adams wrote, and it is especially true in his case, as it took several minutes to set up his 8x10 camera assembly in 1940 (“Examples,” p.103). This photograph is one of many by Adams that has been called an environmental statement, but the photographer wrote that, as with all his work, his emotional and aesthetic response took preeminence over any deliberate assertion of “meaning” (“Examples,” p.106).

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is one of the most well-known twentieth century photographers. His contributions to the field of photography include his innovation and teaching of the Zone System. The quality of his photographs set the standard by which many straight photographs are judged.

The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of twenty-five photographs, all printed in or about 1968. All are gelatin silver, mounted, labeled and signed in ink by the photographer. The photographs include some of his most well-known images, but also portraits and objects. The selection of images was made in collaboration between the collecting curator and Adams.