“The peak is the most majestic I have ever seen—and the view incomprehensible.” So wrote famed American photographer Ansel Adams during one of his many trips to Yosemite National Park, trips that are depicted in the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s special exhibit featuring more than 125 photos spanning seven decades in the life and career of Adams (1902-1984) that opened September 15.
On loan from the Boston-based Lane Collection, the exhibit takes visitors through five spacious rooms that roughly follow the chronology and development of Adams’s eye. Each photograph is hung low against a stark white wall and is lit using a small spotlight. “That gives each image a glow—as if each one is a jewel,” says host curator Paul Roth.The exhibit begins with small, shadowy images that Adams shot and developed in his teens and 20s. Back then, photography was meant to mimic paintings, and the prevailing art movement of the day meant soft focus and warm tones for photographs—not the distinct lines and sharp tonal contrasts that Adams produced in the 1930s. Subtle clues hint at the photographer’s artistic trajectory: The early, blurrier photos are surrounded by black frames; the later ones are framed in white.
Best known for his images of nature, Adams first went to Yosemite National Park with his parents when he was 14. Smitten by the park’s beauty, he would return almost every year until his death in 1984. His “Clearing Winter Storm,” taken at Yosemite in 1937, and his “Moonrise,” taken near Hernandez, New Mexico, in 1941 (both part of the exhibit), are publicly acknowledged as some of the most iconic landscape photographs ever taken.
The exhibit runs through January 27. Adult admission is $14 and also gets you a ticket for the Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit that opens October 15.
On loan from the Boston-based Lane Collection, the exhibit takes visitors through five spacious rooms that roughly follow the chronology and development of Adams’s eye. Each photograph is hung low against a stark white wall and is lit using a small spotlight. “That gives each image a glow—as if each one is a jewel,” says host curator Paul Roth.The exhibit begins with small, shadowy images that Adams shot and developed in his teens and 20s. Back then, photography was meant to mimic paintings, and the prevailing art movement of the day meant soft focus and warm tones for photographs—not the distinct lines and sharp tonal contrasts that Adams produced in the 1930s. Subtle clues hint at the photographer’s artistic trajectory: The early, blurrier photos are surrounded by black frames; the later ones are framed in white.
Best known for his images of nature, Adams first went to Yosemite National Park with his parents when he was 14. Smitten by the park’s beauty, he would return almost every year until his death in 1984. His “Clearing Winter Storm,” taken at Yosemite in 1937, and his “Moonrise,” taken near Hernandez, New Mexico, in 1941 (both part of the exhibit), are publicly acknowledged as some of the most iconic landscape photographs ever taken.
The exhibit runs through January 27. Adult admission is $14 and also gets you a ticket for the Annie Leibovitz photography exhibit that opens October 15.
Ansel Adams's \"Moonrise,\" taken in Hernandez, New Mexico, in 1941.
Photo: The Lane Collection, Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ansel Adams's "Moonrise," taken in Hernandez, New Mexico, in 1941.
Photo: The Lane Collection, Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Adams photographed "Self-Portrait" in Monument Valley, Utah, in 1958.
Photo: The Lane Collection, Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
