Mrs. Gunn on Porch, Independence, California
1944, printed 1981
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
overall: 47.5 x 36 cm (18 11/16 x 14 3/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Virginia B. Adams
Accession Number
1986.3.50
Art Historical Context
In 1944, amid the stark landscapes of California's Owens Valley, Ansel Adams captured *Mrs. Gunn on Porch, Independence, California*, a poignant gelatin silver print exemplifies his mastery of black-and-white photography. Adams, a pioneering figure in straight photography and co-founder of Group f/64, was renowned for his breathtaking landscapes of Yosemite and the American West. Yet here, during World War II, he turned his lens to intimate portraits, documenting life in rural Independence—a small town near the infamous Manar internment camp for Japanese Americans. This image, printed later in...
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...