View of Kendall Mountain, photo by Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams and Silverton
Silverton, Colorado, is what a person interested in light dreams about. Ansel Adams knew this, as evidenced in his photo in the summer of 1951.
I don't know how to describe this, but a watercolorist or photographer knows what I mean.
If you were to have stopped by Andy Darr's Silver San Juan gallery several years ago and asked why he is here, listen to what he says about light and how he paints skies, especially capturing what one feels in Silverton.
Better yet, look at Ansel Adams's Silverton and Mountain West photos from 1948 to 1954.
The most often discussed photo locally is one he made in 1951 while in an alley behind Reese Street
Ansel Adams
Reportedly, Adams was watching the phenomena of “alpenglow” swirl around Kendal one evening and wondered if it could be captured in black-and-white format (it cannot). Still, the timeline of an absence of snow on Kendall points to a late August / first week of September moment in the few short weeks that no snow is on Kendall. That photo is not about “Alpenglow” but about Silverton. Also, if you notice the shadow lines on the two buildings that frame the photograph, you can estimate that the photo was taken in the morning, probably around 10 am, while the sun is to the left of Kendall's peak.
Adams had just come off winning a Guggenheim fellowship, which he used to travel around the mountain west taking photographs; the work was so phenomenal that the foundation renewed it for another year in 1949. Silverton was one of Adam's favorite places. Adams exhibited the Silverton photo in 1955 when Adams and Nancy Newhall organized an exhibit at the Le Conte Lodge called “This is the American Earth.” Better yet, look at Ansel Adams's photos of Silverton and the Mountain West from 1948 to 1954. Ansel described it as the first endeavor of its kind to relate to conservation at “both the sociological and esthetic level.” The exhibit was circulated in the United States by the Smithsonian Institution
Below is a video from the Adams Foundation of Adams describing his image making process shortly before his death.
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