Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 901, Box D

Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California

Photograph
1944 (made), 20th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Adams, Ansel (photographer)
Place of origin
California (photographed)
Sierra Nevada (photographed)

This landscape photograph was taken by Ansel Adams, an American photographer, in 1944 in Sierra Nevada, California. This image depicts a field of boulders in the foreground, leading to a dramatically-lit view of Mount Williamson. Adams wrote of the process of taking this photograph: "I drove my station wagon to a place I had often visited. Never before had the conditions been right for me at this location, but this time there was a glorious storm going on in the mountains" (See Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, p. 68). Adams travelled throughout the West Coast of the United States during his career, producing many powerful landscape photographs.


Object details

Category
Photographs
Object type
Photograph
TitleMount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California (generic title)
Materials and techniques
photographic paper, gelatin silver print
Photographic Paper
Gelatin
Brief description
'Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California'; photograph (silver print) by Ansel Adams, 1944
Physical description
Photograph (gelatin silver print)
Dimensions
    Marks and inscriptions
    Signed 'Ansel Adams' bottom right-hand corner
    Gallery label
    • "When the clouds and storms appear the skies and the cloud-shadows on the mountain bring everything to life, shapes and planes appear that were hitherto unseen. Mountain configurations blend with and relate to those of the clouds. Paul Strand said to me at Taos, at my meeting with him in 1930 that, was of such importance to my photography: 'There is a certain valid moment for every cloud'." - Ansel Adams
    • "When the clouds and storms appear the skies and the cloud-shadows on the mountain bring everything to life; shapes and planes appear that were hitherto unseen. Mountain configurations blend with and relate to those of the clouds. Paul Strand said to me at Taos, at my meeting with him in 1930 that was of such importance to my photography, "There is a certain valid moment for every cloud." - Ansel Adams(11/09/2007-28/06/2008)
    Credit line
    Acquired from the Artist in 1975.
    Object history
    Part of group of twelve photographs by Ansel Adams, purchased in 1975.
    Subject depicted
    Landscape
    Places depicted
    California
    Sierra Nevada
    USA
    Associations
    Sierra Nevada
    USA
    California
    Summary
    This landscape photograph was taken by Ansel Adams, an American photographer, in 1944 in Sierra Nevada, California. This image depicts a field of boulders in the foreground, leading to a dramatically-lit view of Mount Williamson. Adams wrote of the process of taking this photograph: "I drove my station wagon to a place I had often visited. Never before had the conditions been right for me at this location, but this time there was a glorious storm going on in the mountains" (See Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, p. 68). Adams travelled throughout the West Coast of the United States during his career, producing many powerful landscape photographs.
    Bibliographic references
    • Adams, Ansel, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1989, pp. 65-69.
    • Taken from Departmental Circulation Register 1975
    Collection
    Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
    Accession number
    CIRC.595-1975

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    Record createdJuly 24, 2007
    Record URL
    https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137836/mount-williamson-sierra-nevada-from-photograph-adams-ansel/
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