Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, California
1960, printed 1980
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 49.5 × 36.5 cm (19 1/2 × 14 3/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. Murray H. Bring)
Accession Number
2015.19.4431
Art Historical Context
Ansel Adams captured "Moon and Half Dome" in 1960, returning to his beloved Yosemite Valley to frame the iconic granite formation against a luminous moon. A master of American landscape photography, Adams devoted much of his career to celebrating the grandeur of the American West, using his images to advocate for conservation long before environmentalism became a widespread cause. Printed as a gelatin silver print in 1980, this work exemplifies Adams’s technical precision and artistic vision. The medium allowed him to achieve extraordinary tonal range and sharpness, transforming a fleeting na...
About the Artist
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams, born on February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California, grew up as the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman and astronomy enthusiast who tutored him at home, and Olive Bray, with whom he had a distant relationship. A hyperactive child prone to illness, Adams struggled in formal schooling and was educated by private tutors and his father until graduating from eighth gr...