Live Auction 3457The Range of Light: Photographs by Ansel Adams
ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Lot 9 We were in the shadows of the mountains. The light was cool and quiet and no wind was stirring. The aspen trunks were slightly greenish and the leaves were a vibrant yellow...I made a horizontal picture first, then moved to the left and made the vertical image at about the same subject distance. The majority of viewers of the horizontal image think it was a sunlit scene. When I explain it represented diffused lighting from the sky and also reflected light from distant clouds, some rejoin, 'Then why does it look the way it does?' Such questions remind me that many viewers expect a photograph to be the literal simulation of reality.

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958

Closed3 April 2014

Price Realised

USD 106,250

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ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958
gelatin silver mural print, printed c. 1970
title and Polaroid Collection accession number in pencil (on the reverse of the mount)
image/sheet: 20 3/8 x 26in. (51.5 x 66cm.)
mount: 20¾ x 26¼in. (51.5 x 66.6cm.)

From the artist;
to Edwin Land, Polaroid Corporation;
Sotheby's, New York, Photographs from the Polaroid Corporation, June 21, 2010, lot 336;
to a Private Collection;
Christie's, New York, October 5, 2012, lot 329

Specialist note

Please see lots 15 and 16 for approximately 16 x 20 inch vertical and horizontal versions of the image.