Autumn Storm, Los Trampas, near Penasco, New Mexico c. 1958 - 1981

Ansel Adams captured this moody photograph, Autumn Storm, in Los Trampas, New Mexico, using his camera as a kind of brush, layering grays like strokes of paint. I can almost feel Adams standing there, the wind picking up, the light shifting dramatically. It's like he's wrestling with the moment, trying to capture not just the scene, but the feeling of the storm rolling in. Those clouds—heavy, pregnant with rain—they're not just clouds, they're emotional brushstrokes, thick and full of feeling. And then you have the stark contrast with the illuminated trees and church, adding an almost surreal dimension to the landscape. Adams, like any artist, was in conversation with those who came before him. He’s tipping his hat to the landscape painters, like Courbet and Constable but using light instead of pigment. It’s like he’s saying, “I see you, I get it.” And that's what art is, really—artists talking to each other across time and space, trying to figure out this whole being-human thing together.