More About the Image:
In the autumn of 1937, Ansel traveled to the southwest. With friends and patrons, including Georgia O'Keeffe and David McAlpin, the group circumnavigated the Four Corners region, spending part of that time in the Dolores River Canyon in Colorado toward the end of the journey. Writing to Alfred Stieglitz on September 21st, 1937, Ansel expressed that he was making work that was 'more subtle' and that 'perhaps I am on the verge of making a really good photograph.' (L pg. 100) Spared of any visual embellishments, his image of bare aspen trunks, dancing like exuberant sprites in a moment extemporaneous jubilation, was made just a few days later in the pre-dawn light. John Szarkowski, the preeminent Curator of photography, would later refer to it as a 'fugue of aspens.' (LAA pg. 201) At the end of his life, Ansel communicated the significance of this image by making it one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set, and it would later be included in the posthumous exhibition and eponymous book, Ansel Adams at 100.
So wrote Ansel Adams, whose photographs of the varied and rugged landscapes of the region have imprinted upon the imaginations of millions around the world. Beyond Yosemite and the High Sierra, the Southwest was one of Ansel’s best-loved regions of the country.In fact, it was a trip to Taos, New Mexico in the 1930s that led Ansel to cross paths with photographer Paul Strand, who helped inspire him to make photography his life’s work. The rest, as they say, is history.
