Nevada Fall, Rainbow, Yosemite
Original Photograph Negative: ca, 1947
Artist: Ansel Adams
Original Photograph Negative: ca, 1947
Artist: Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams made this image around 1947 with an 8" x 10" view camera while on assignment with Kodak to test out new color transparencies. In a letter to Beaumont Newhall, Ansel wrote with excitement, ‘High Ho!! Believe it or not, Eastman [Kodak] Co. are paying me $250.00 per shot for at least three 8x10 Kodachromes of Waterfalls wit [sic] Rainbows! (No discount if there ain’t no rainboo! [sic]).’ (AIC pg. 140) While composing the image, Adams struggled to keep the camera dry in the mist. He recalled that ‘the sound and fury of the waterfall, the clean air, and driving mist were unforgettable.’ (E pg. 121-122) Later, in an answer to critics questioning the artistic merit of the photograph, he responded: ‘Some urban aesthetes claim this photograph is just a bit of scenery and is certainly not art. May they and their opinions rest in peace! I think it is a choice bit of Chaos organized into some kind of expressive Order. I do not desire to impose a definition of creativity on anyone.’ (E pg. 122-123) The income from this Kodak assignment would also help Ansel supplement his Guggenheim Fellowship, which was to start the following year. The image would appear in Ansel’s Portfolio 3, as well as in his important collection, Yosemite and the Range of Light. Later, the image would be included in the Special Edition of Yosemite series signifying its importance among the artist’s collective works.
Ansel Adams made this image around 1947 with an 8″ x 10″ view camera after a long walk to the site and waiting many hours for the rainbow to appear in the foreground. Waiting around? Examples is much more colorful than waiting around. Despite the lengthy time to consider his set up, Adams didn’t capture it exactly as he wanted, as he writes in Examples…
The twisting cascade of Nevada Fall is an impressive sight for any visitor to Yosemite National Park. Plunging 594 feet to the boulders below, the white waters of the Merced River are dazzling year-round. But in the springtime, when the river is swollen and the fall is at its fullest, the forceful spray at the bottom produces a rolling cloud of mist that perfumes the canyon for more than half a mile.
