A Lifetime Of Photography
Photography is a record of our lives. These are some of my favorites from days past, in no particular order. I will try an feature a new one every few days or so. I hope you enjoy this look back through time, through the lens of some of history's best photographers.
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico - Ansel Adams, 1941
From the Norton Simon Museum:
Adams is famous for his dramatic photographs of the natural world. Inspired by the landscape of the American West, his imagery established the standard by which nature photography has been judged for the past 60 years. Among his most celebrated images is “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” taken on Halloween. Here, Adams captures the intense, emotional response he experienced watching the rising moon illuminate the small town of Hernandez, New Mexico. One critic noted that Adams’s photographs “transcend the simple description of objects and landscape; they depict transient aspects of light, atmosphere and natural phenomena.” This observation is certainly true of this enchanted image, in which an otherwise ordinary evening in a seemingly deserted city has been transformed into a powerful, mystical moment in time.
Oak Tree, Snow Storm, Yosemite, from Portfolio One: Twelve Photographic Prints - Ansel Adams, 1948
From SFMOMA:
From the time he first visited Yosemite National Park at the age of 14, Ansel Adams was enraptured by its natural beauty and varied terrain. As an adult he made the park his second home, living and working there all or part of each year. He met his wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite; when her father died, they took over his concession in the park, Best Studios (renamed the Ansel Adams Gallery in the 1970s).
Throughout his long career, Adams shot a wide range of subjects in Yosemite, including trees, mountains, waterfalls, flowers, and rocks. In its theatricality and profuse detail, this dramatic composition of a snow-covered tree is typical of his mature style.
Rain, Beartrack Cove, Glacier Bay National Monument, Alaska, from Portfolio Two: The National Parks and Monuments - Ansel Adams, 1949, printed 1950
Stream and Sea Rodeo Lagoon, Marin County, California - Ansel Adams, 1960, printed before 1963
Love Thy Neighbor (Murder on the Railway Line) - László Moholy-Nagy, 1925
From the Getty Musuem:
The overlapping circles in this photomontage suggest the range finder of a rifle and also a rapid-fire simultaneity of events. A female sharpshooter at the center of the circles reinforces the metaphor of shooting. Standing outside of the circles, a female gymnast lifting weights is seemingly unaware of the gun trained at her chest. The repeating vignettes of a railway station colonnade, to which the alternate title of the work, Murder on the Railway Line, refers, lend a sinister, almost cinematic air to the composition. László Moholy-Nagy did not intend a specific narrative; he sought instead to excite intuitive rather than intellectual responses in his audience.
