White House Ruin

More About the Image:

Ansel Adams was introduced to 19th century photography of the southwest by Francis Farquhar (Sierra Club President 1933-1935 and 1948–1949), among them works by Timothy O’Sullivan.  During his time photographing as a photo-muralist for the Department of the Interior in 1942, Ansel traveled to Canyon de Chelly intent on photographing the park, a place Ansel called ‘one of the most beautiful parts of America.’ (PH pg. 654  The morning he made this image, he said he ‘came across a strangely familiar scene’ of the White House Ruin, but it was not until he had, months later, made a finished print that it dawned on him why ‘the subject had a familiar aspect.’ (E pg.127)  He had ‘stood unaware in almost the same spot on the canyon floor, about the same month and day, and at nearly the same time of day’ as O’Sullivan had in 1873. (E pg.127)  The composition that Ansel created relies heavily of the brilliance of White House and the crisscrossing diagonals of sandstone layers and water streaks.  The scene almost seems to have an underlying Futurist structure and what Dr. Rebecca Senf would call a ‘powerful, direct and operatic style.’ (MaP pg.199)  Ansel’s photographs made during this era, such as White House Ruin, can be considered as his mature stage, with qualities that included ‘a panoramic perspective with emphasis on a distant landscape, an omniscient viewpoint, the inclusion of dramatic light and weather effects, and a balanced inclusion of a wide range of gray tones.’  (Map Pg.200)  Ansel communicated the significance of this series by including it as one of the variants in his last major project, The Museum Set.