Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California

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Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California

Artist Ansel Easton Adams (American, 1902-1984)

Date1944

Dimensions15 3/4 x 19 9/16 in. (40 x 49.7 cm)

Mediumgelatin-silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Margaret and Howard Bond

Object number

2007.80

Not on View

Label TextSometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter. New Inspiration Point, from where this photograph was taken, commands a marvelous vista and was Ansel Adams’ favored viewpoint of the Yosemite Valley. Clearing Winter Storm was photographed early on a December day. The storm was first of heavy rain, which turned to snow and began to clear about noon. As much as Adams liked the light conditions present during inclement weather, he did lament its changeability: Setting up the camera takes several minutes during which the first promising aspects of light and cloud may disappear. I would sometimes wait hopefully for the scene that I could visualize as an exciting image. It was occasionally realized, but I have always been mindful of Edward Weston’s remark, “If I wait for something here I may lose something better over there.” I have found that keeping on the move is generally more rewarding. However, it is important to say that I photographed from this particular viewpoint in Yosemite many times over many years, with widely varying results.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 296, repr. (col.).Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, Ansel Adams, Gallery 18, June 30, - Sept. 4, 2006.

Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, The American West: Photographs of a New Frontier, January 15-May 15, 2016.