More About the Image:
Ansel Adams most likely made this image circa 1935 in the Tuolumne Meadows region of Yosemite National Park. This composition, its title grasses fulminating out of the water like streaking fireworks on a warm summer night ‘feels almost Japanese in its abstract composition, somber tones and quiet light.’ (LAA pg.83) To that end, Ansel would choose this image as one he would make into a large (up to six feet tall) three panel screen derived from ‘a Japanese-style.’ (BMFA pg. 141) Ansel would make around dozen screens in all, the first in 1936. Although ‘the inspiration for this first screen is not known, its manufacture coincided with his growing interest in printing mural-size photographs’ for the Yosemite Park and Curry Company to display at the San Diego World’s Fair. (BMFA pg. 141) Although the image may not be classified as one of Ansel’s heroic landscapes, its grandeur is in its calligraphic forms that still radiate with light. Later, Ansel would include it as one of the plates in his Portfolio 3, published with the help of the Sierra Club in 1960 and commemorating Yosemite Valley. At the end of his life, Ansel communicated the significance of this image by including it as one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set. Later, this image would be published in the posthumous book and exhibition, Ansel Adams at 100.
