Sun Over the Pacific, Devil's Slide, California
1947
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 18.8 × 25.2 cm (7 3/8 × 9 15/16 in.) sheet: 27.6 × 35 cm (10 7/8 × 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Robert B. Menschel
Accession Number
2019.180.1.1
Art Historical Context
In 1947, renowned American photographer Minor White captured *Sun Over the Pacific,'s Slide, California*, striking gelatin silver print evoking the raw power of the West Coast landscape. Devil's Slide, a rugged coastal bluff south of San Francisco, is infamous for its sheer cliffs plunging into the churning Pacific Ocean—a site of dramatic natural beauty and peril, often battered by waves and fog. White, then in his late 30s and honing his modernist vision, framed the sun's radiant glow piercing through coastal haze, highlighting the interplay of light, sea, and land in a moment of sublime ten...
About the Artist
Minor White
Minor White (1908–1976) was an American photographer, editor, and educator who became one of the most influential figures in postwar American art photography. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he studied botany and English at the University of Minnesota before turning to photography in the late 1930s, working for the WPA and the Portland Art Museum. After serving in World War II, White studied at C...