Monument Valley, Arizona Possibly 1958 - 1981

Ansel Adams made this photograph of Monument Valley, Arizona using gelatin silver print to construct a very particular way of seeing this landscape. Look at how Adams plays with the textures here: the striated rock in the foreground set against the smooth, distant mesas. The surface is incredibly tactile; you can almost feel the grit and grain. The contrast! Adams coaxes so much tonal variation out of black and white. It's easy to forget that black and white offers just as much of a colour range as colour itself. Notice how the light sculpts the forms, creating deep shadows and brilliant highlights. It’s as if the land itself is breathing. Adams was very interested in capturing nature in its sublime, grand state. You can see shades of Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich. But unlike those painters, Adams isn’t interested in our relationship to the landscape, but rather in the landscape in itself. He shows us that the desert isn't empty. It's full of life.