Your photography history post for today: by Ansel Adams (1902-1984), “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” 1941. #photography #blackandwhitephotography #darkroomphotography #PhotographyHistory

From Christie’s New York, 6 October 2021: “We were sailing southward along the highway not far from Española when I glanced to the left and saw an extraordinary situation—an inevitable photograph. —Ansel Adams

Decades after the image was captured, Ansel Adams vividly recalled the circumstances surrounding the picture. 'Well, this was a tremendous sight to be seen, and I had to beg everybody in the car to help me to get everything out, to get the tripod. And the magnificent white mountains, clear day, church [with] a flat adobe roof, and the moon [that] was up about, oh, 30 degrees, several days before full. And there was a long line of clouds here, the sun was just running low behind them, putting the light on white crosses. I think it was one of the great scientists who said that ‘chance favors the prepared mind,’ and in this case I had to be sufficiently prepared to make this work. I instinctively felt I had quite the extraordinary image, and I think you know it.' It was a remarkable achievement in an otherwise disappointing day that had yielded little success along the Chama River valley on November 1st, during Adams' commission to photograph the Southwest by the U.S. department of the Interior and the U.S. Potash Company of New Mexico.”

Today’s art history post features photography history: “Christmas Morning,” 1933, photo by James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), hand painted gelatin silver print. #photography #darkroomphotography #studiophotography #PhotographyHistory #Christmas #blackphotographer #blackphotographers #blackhistory

From Thelma Golden, Aperture Magazine, Summer, 2016: “VanDerZee pictured families, couples, social clubs, and church groups in moments of communal joy and beauty. His subjects were acutely aware of the brutal segregation and economic inequality of the world of that era, yet stood in proud opposition to it-providing a visual framework for imagining a different future. Eighty-three years later, Christmas Morning continues to resonate.

The photographs of VanDerZee and his contemporaries comprise a compelling visual document of black pride and self-determination at a particular moment in history, yet in the present moment they remain a potent symbol of the transformative power of photographic representation.”