Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox
Original Photograph Negative: 1937
Artist: Ansel Adams
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More About the Image:
This image was made during a much-anticipated trip to the southwest in 1937 – just before the trip, Ansel wrote his patron and fellow journeyman David McAlpin that while waiting he felt ‘like a six-year-old on Christmas Eve!’ (LAA pg. 95) O’Keeffe hosted Ansel, McAlpin and other members of the Rockefeller family near Abiquiu, New Mexico, before they headed out on a ten-day journey of the Four Corners region. Orville Cox, a foreman at Ghost Ranch, was brought along as a trusted and knowledgeable guide. Ansel had packed an array of equipment for the trip, including his 35mm Zeiss Contax. A few days into the trip, the group stopped at Canyon de Chelly – the ‘high point of the journey’ according to Ansel. (E pg. 153) A heavy rainstorm flooded the valley floor and pushed the group to explore the canyon rim. While there, Ansel ‘observed O’Keeffe and Cox in a breezy conversation standing on a rock slope above me. The moment [to take a portrait] was now.’ (E pg. 154) The speedy and portable Zeiss Contax in hand, Ansel intuitively knelt to isolate the two jet clad figures against the brilliant sky. He produced only one exposure as the bashful and impish tenor of the scene was fleeting, making his use of the more mobile 35mm instrument paramount. A classic, if not perhaps the most well-known portrait from his career, Ansel included this image as one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set.
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.
Ansel’s portrait of O’Keeffe and Cox was made at the rim of Canyon de Chelly. “I was walking around with my Zeiss Contax,” he wrote, “and I observed O’Keeffe and Orville Cox in breezy conversation standing on a rock slope above me. They were engaged in a bit of banter. The moment was now.”
