ANSEL ADAMS' SECOND TAKE ON A CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPH

by Jennifer A. Watts

On a brilliant spring day in 1927, Ansel Adams hiked to an out-of-the-way spot in Yosemite that promised a spectacular view of the valley below. Adams had already been making pictures for more than a decade (his first visit to Yosemite in 1916 prompted the gift of his first camera—a Kodak Box Brownie), but he still was not sure about photography as a vocation. Looking through the camera lens that afternoon, Adams had an epiphany. “I began to see in my mind’s eye the finished print I desired,” he wrote. Adams suddenly realized that he could translate how he felt—a telepathic exercise he later termed “visualization”—onto the final image. The result, titled Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, not only irrevocably changed his understanding of the medium, but it became one of his signature works.

Monolith made its first appearance in a 1927 portfolio of 18 Adams images with the highfalutin title Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. (“Parmelian” being a made-up word meant to evoke classical associations like the Parthenon and Parnassus). This rare set, one of which is in The Huntington’s collections, reveals an Adams quite at odds with the artist most of us think we know today. The images, printed on a delicate, parchment-like paper, are all of eight by six inches and, despite the dramatic subject matter, have a quiet intimacy that beckons the viewer to come closer and examine the detail.             

Fast-forward 50 years. What we see on the far right is Adams’ interpretation of the same negative around 1980. In the intervening half-century, Adams became a giant in the field, a photographer who consorted with presidents and statesmen, became a spokesman for conservation causes, and appeared on the cover of Time magazine. He was an indisputable superstar feted in exhibitions and books, his photographs fetching record-breaking prices at auction. This later Monolith seems to attest to Adams’ larger-than-life fame. Now a generous 19 by 14.5 inches with blinding whites and inky blacks that could be seen from across a gallery, this later print shouts down the quiet elegance of the earlier rendition.

Why the difference? Perhaps, as some have posited, Adams’ failing eyesight in his later years is to account. Certainly prevailing trends in photography favored large-scale work with high contrast over the more muted and nostalgic shadings of the earlier era. Still, it is fascinating to view these prints side by side and contemplate the artistic trajectory of the man whose very name is synonymous with 20th-century landscape photography. Readers will have the chance to do just that; both prints from The Huntington are on loan for the exhibition “Yosemite: Art of an American Icon” (Part I: 1855 - 1969) at the Autry Museum of the American West through Jan. 21, 2007.

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