Ansel Adams' Clearing Winter Storm

[Bill_1856]

My favorite AA image has always been "Clearing Winter Storm." I've always seen it listed at made in 1944, but in an interview with his son, he indicated that it may have been made in 1936.
I've not seen anything about this. Does anyone have any information?

[Jerry Bodine]

It's my favorite as well; I have an original 16x20 hanging in my living room that I bought at one of several workshops in the late '60s (a steal at $200). I looked in my copy of Ansel Adams 400 Photographs, p. 419, that shows circa 1937, and goes on to say that he was typically unsure of the date but evidence suggests late 1930s.

[Bill Burk]

In his autobiography, Ansel Adams says he went there in 1936 and always wanted to get a shot from Inspiration Point, but he clearly said that he finally got it in 1944.

A friend of mine (who was his gardener) showed me a print he swiped from the trash that on first glance looks very much like "Clearing Storm" and THAT one could have been from 1936.

[Bill Burk]

I looked in my copy of Ansel Adams 400 Photographs, p. 419, that shows circa 1937, and goes on to say that he was typically unsure of the date but evidence suggests late 1930s.

OK great

[Jerry Bodine]

However, many of us know that his most popular print versions were made YEARS after the exposure, as his visualization preferences changed. So it can be a bit tricky to learn what published dates actually mean (I'm guessing they're intended to mean the exposure date).

[Andrew O'Neill]

There was the same issue with Moonrise Over Hernandez, too. Apparently, he was pretty bad when it came to remembering dates...Odd for someone whom I thought was pretty thorough as far as note taking goes.

[Bruce Watson]

I don't know when the film was exposed, or when the prints were made. All I know is that I love to look at it; I always see something new, interesting, and beautiful.

[Mark Sampson]

It is indeed a beautiful photograph- it's impressive enough in reproductions, an original print is stunning and rewards repeated viewing. Am I correct in thinking that trees have grown up and that that particular view is no longer visible?

[monotux]

As for the notes - didn't his darkroom & studio burn down at one point in the 1940'ies? Might explain the lack of good notes...

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[Bruce Watson]

It is indeed a beautiful photograph- it's impressive enough in reproductions, an original print is stunning and rewards repeated viewing. Am I correct in thinking that trees have grown up and that that particular view is no longer visible?

It's been a while since I was there. 10 years? IDK. But the view is still there, although it's not exactly the same. Trees grow and change, just like they should. The National Park Service is known to perform some "view maintenance" when they think it's needed also. I wish they would do more view maint. on the Blue Ridge Parkway (4500 km [more or less] to the east of Yosemite), as many of the old views are so grown over as to be "missing" these days.

[Drew Wiley]

It's a negative that survived his Yos darkroom fire in the summer of 1937, but not without some damage, and thereafter caused him quite a bit of grief printing.
On the other hand, he progressively became a better printer in general over time. His book, Examples, discusses the dogging and burning nightmare involved.

[Michael R]

Clearing Winder Storm isn't exactly a dodging/burning nightmare. It requires an average amount of manipulation (detailed in The Print) which isn't overly difficult. Other negatives such as Frozen Lake and Cliffs gave him more trouble, although with today's VC papers and techniques he would have had it somewhat easier.

[Drew Wiley]

But we have a bigger tool kit than he did. For example, all that fussing he did with the damaged neg could be almost automated with a master mask or two. Any
serious color printer of that era could have taught him, including some of his Carmel neighbors. But it seems he never explored that route. And now we're spoiled with high-quality VC papers, though I often wish we still had a real selection of classic graded papers too. The problem with the Precipice Lake neg is that is was
a very early shot and severely overexposed. Let's just call it a painful incentive to invent the Zone System, part of the learning curve.

[Drew Wiley]

Of course, all these mechanical editions of certain famous images, which themselves tend to be well executed, were no doubt scanned and tweaked from master prints, not from the neg itself. "Clearing Storm" was basically a fortuitous shot from right there at the turnout overlook where millions of shots have been taken by busloads of tourists. My boss has a huge poster of it in his office. But my favorite AA shot from that spot has rarely been published, and is a very dark brooding look toward the Valley during a thunderstorm, with El Cap lit up, taken much later, in the mid-60's. It's another one from an 8x10 original which holds up well in 20x24 print size.

[mitrajoon]

It doesn't matter to me, but his son specifically states that research confirms it was taken in 1936. I'd take his word for it.

[Drew Wiley]

The older I get, the more I seem to appreciate AA's carefully nuanced poetic choreography of light. I think a person has to be really immersed in the mountains
like I have been all my life to fully recognize this. I don't don't personally either emulate or avoid his style when encountering similar subject matter; I'm hardly a clone or Zone System junkie. If the shoe fits, I wear it; otherwise, something else applies. I wear neither a beard, bent nose, nor Stetson cowboy hat. But know-it-all clowns tend to ridicule AA because his technique and nominal subject matter are now seemingly easy and have became ubiquitous among a certain generation or two of outdoor photographers. Frankly, it doesn't matter how many people own pianos; not everyone can play with the same skill. You have to listen.

[Bill_1856]

My boss has a huge poster of it in his office.

YOU have a boss? YOU?

[Drew Wiley]

Yep. I'm later stages of the process of making myself dispensable. I don't own the business, so can simply walk away. I'm soon taking up a second career as house cat butler and honey-do facilitator, and when they're not watching, sneaking into the lab or out onto the trails. Everybody picks on me. I even get cussed at by pikas, chickarees, and bluejays up in the high country.

[John Kasaian]

I find it fascinating to see all the photographers at the Tunnel View standing around waiting for snow to stop falling.

[John Kasaian]

^^^If a guy could get the concession to sell hot chocolate with brandy at the Tunnel View on snowy days, this might be one way to make a ton of $$ in photography (although you'd probably have to call it "Majestic View" or something:rolleyes: )

[Drew Wiley]

Roger Minick did a famous snapshot of two old ladies, perhaps twins, standing at the edge of the parking lot staring out over the Valley, each identically dressed
wearing headscarves imprinted with that very scene. I once tweaked a spoof version of the scene, adding an aluminum ladder up the side of El Cap, along with a satellite dish on top, labeling it as Mt Winnebago. This was probably following one of those afternoons of sheer frustrations being stuck behind a motorhome on my way back from some east side backpack. I forget what I re-named Cathedral Rocks on the opposite side of the Valley. I'm obviously not fond of the Valley in summer. But once I retire, I'll likely sneak up there in winter more often. I'm still on my high from being high further up the Merced, with nobody else in sight,
my hiking partner excepted, who is nagging me to get at least one neg actually printed.

[h2oman]

The older I get, the more I seem to appreciate AA's carefully nuanced poetic choreography of light. I think a person has to be really immersed in the mountains
like I have been all my life to fully recognize this. I don't don't personally either emulate or avoid his style when encountering similar subject matter; I'm hardly a clone or Zone System junkie. If the shoe fits, I wear it; otherwise, something else applies. I wear neither a beard, bent nose, nor Stetson cowboy hat. But know-it-all clowns tend to ridicule AA because his technique and nominal subject matter are now seemingly easy and have became ubiquitous among a certain generation or two of outdoor photographers. Frankly, it doesn't matter how many people own pianos; not everyone can play with the same skill. You have to listen.

Agreed - I borrowed his "400 Photographs" (I have an assortment of other books of his photos) and found the number of really good photographs to be astounding. Perhaps even more than that, though, is the enjoyment I derive from reading his writing, particularly "40 Examples" and his autobiography. I don't know what kind of individual he really was, but he comes across as humble and with a delightful sense of humor, often self-deprecating.

[Bill_1856]

Agreed - I...found the number of really good photographs to be astounding. .

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

[Bruce Watson]

Agreed - I borrowed his "400 Photographs" (I have an assortment of other books of his photos) and found the number of really good photographs to be astounding.

Yes, this. Adams produced a large body of art. Enough to be able to create books like his Yosemite and the Range of Light. Of all the photography books I own, this is still my favorite. I still spend hours with it whenever I pull it out of the display case. Enthralling. This is the stuff that inspired me to pursue LF in the first place.

[Bruce Watson]

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

How many peppers did Weston photograph? Hint, it was well more than 30. That's only one really good photograph considering all the years he spend photographing veggies. Some of the others make you scratch your head and wonder what he was thinking.

The point I'm trying to make with tongue firmly in cheek, is that it's silly to try to guage an artist like this. Mozart composed effortlessly and prolifically. Beethoven had to really work for it. Brahms controlled how people like us discussed his legacy by burning a large quantity of his work (mostly early works) so we wouldn't know how many peppers he photographed before he created a masterpiece. Yet each composer created masterpieces and added to the collective works of music, each in their own way.

Photography is no different.

[Drew Wiley]

Certain things can be misleading. Much of AA's finest work has never been published, so people are unfamiliar with it. Second, most of his sales came from only
eight famous images, which were reproduced over and over again, either in the darkroom or published, or otherwise frequently reproduced. Yes, he was primarilya commercial photographer in terms of actual income, so did many things which might not hit a high note. But like I already suggested, you have to be immersed in the light of the high Sierra quite a bit yourself to appreciate his sensitivity to it. "Rocks n' trees", as his old LA critics dismissed it with a blanket genre, missed the point entirely. What has been quite interesting after returning from my latest trip is to compare the famous shots AA made at the same spot in the 1940's (two are reproduced in Range of Light), from the same scenes he did twenty years before in the distinctly pictorial style espoused by Mortensen, which he later renounced. All but one of those has apparently never been published. And it will be interesting to see how my own tweak on those same perspectives will come out, once I print them. I neither avoid nor mimic AA's influence. My own impression of Sierra light goes clear back to childhood, long
before I ever saw a single AA print. As for EW, he did quite a few stunning vegetables, some sliced in half. Don't confuse that fact with what merely hits the auction market.

[Tim Meisburger]

The image I find most impressive is Trailer Camp Children. Shot off the cuff with Dorothea Lange's Rolleiflex (as he was only shooting a view camera). He shot exactly one negative, and matched or exceeded "Migrant Mother" in impact and drama.

[Drew Wiley]

Them is fightin' words, Tim. Dorothea's work is considered the crown jewels of our local museum. I see one of her family members almost daily. But yeah, that
Trailer Camp shot is memorable.

[h2oman]

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

I'm not surprised at this response coming from you, Bill, and I respect it even if I disagree. We all have different tastes, and perhaps I'm just too intellectually or emotionally shallow to appreciate much of EW's work (since you bring him up) to the same extent that I enjoys AA's. One notion that should be dispensed of right now, though, is that it is easy to make a good photograph of a beautiful place. Much evidence to the contrary can be found.

[Bill_1856]

I didn't mean to imply that I don't like his work -- I certainly do, including many of his ANG images. I just wanted to point out that just because HE made it doesn't mean that it's automatically a Great Image.

[John Kasaian]

How many peppers did Weston photograph? Hint, it was well more than 30. That's only one really good photograph considering all the years he spend photographing veggies. Some of the others make you scratch your head and wonder what he was thinking.

The point I'm trying to make with tongue firmly in cheek, is that it's silly to try to guage an artist like this. Mozart composed effortlessly and prolifically. Beethoven had to really work for it. Brahms controlled how people like us discussed his legacy by burning a large quantity of his work (mostly early works) so we wouldn't know how many peppers he photographed before he created a masterpiece. Yet each composer created masterpieces and added to the collective works of music, each in their own way.

Photography is no different.

Bruce, all this talk of peppers is making me hungry!

[Drew Wiley]

I've seen piles of so-so AA prints, many of them merely adequate commercial shots printed low-contrast for offset reproduction, and even piles of EW ones which he probably planned to throw away in the first place, then somebody inherited. I've got piles of my own dud work prints, which I keep on hand only so I can reference how to print those particular images better the next session, before I finally shred them up into the recycle container. Even Babe Ruth struck out more times than he hit a home run. What counts it not only the ability to make excellent prints, but how to recognize them when you do, then hopefully toss the rest.
But some photographers are apparently hoarders.

[chassis]

Clearing Winter Storm is the first photograph that caused my jaw to drop, around 20 years ago.

[Leszek Vogt]

Wow, I realize that I live in a different universe (cocoon if you will). Never seen the Trailer kids shot (thanks for that, Tim) and I see the point clearly. I always thought that the winter clearing shot had to do with El Capitan (alone) in the fog and clouds clearing....and I saw his work in Carmel and at Yos. Still learning, I suppose.

Les