Mount Williamson, the Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California
1944, printed 1980
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
overall: 46.2 x 38.9 cm (18 3/16 x 15 5/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Virginia B. Adams
Accession Number
1986.3.3
Art Historical Context
Behold the majestic *Mount Williamson, the Sierra Nevada, from Manar, California* (1944, printed 1980), a silver print by Ansel Adams master of black-and-white landscape photography. Captured from the Owens Valley, this 46.2 x 38.9 cm image frames the towering peak of Mount Williamson—California's second-highest summit—against a vast, textured sky and rugged foreground, embodying Adams' signature clarity and dramatic tonal range. Taken in 1944 amid World War II, the photograph's vantage point at Manzanar, a Japanese American internment camp, adds profound historical weight. Adams visited the ...
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...