More About the Image:
Surf Sequence was made over the course of 20 minutes circa 1940 on a ‘crisp, shining day’ along the California coast south of San Francisco. (E pg.23) Ansel recalled that the ‘surf was streaming over the beach, creating one beautiful pattern after another.’ (E pg.23) During the session, the challenge for Ansel became the need for proper anticipation of the incoming or receding waves. He said, ‘I failed in precise judgement’ on a number of exposures, echoing ‘the photographer must be alert to the combinations confronting [them].’ (E pg.23) Although he refused to directly claim an unadulterated order of the sequence, it is possible to use the withdrawing shadows at the base of the photographs to find the precise chronology. Conversely, the organic nature of the subject imbues the sequence with a wonderfully liberal interpretation to its arrangement. Each image on its own represents a startlingly abstract scene, while as a series, the conceptual wave patterns create a visual stream-of-consciousness – a poetry emerges from the synesthetic purling of water. In his autobiography, Ansel would remark that ‘Surf Sequence is one of my most successful photographic expressions.’ (AB pg. 167) Ansel communicated the significance of this series by including it as one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set, and was part of the posthumous exhibition and book, Ansel Adams at 100.
