Winter Sunrise, the Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California Possibly 1944 - 1980

Ansel Adams made this gelatin silver print, "Winter Sunrise, the Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California," sometime in the middle of the 20th century. I'm imagining Adams out there in the freezing cold, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon, all that dramatic light hitting the peaks. It's a landscape, but it's also about the emotional impact of nature. I get the sense that Adams was trying to capture something beyond just the scenery. It's like he wanted to show us the feeling of being in that place, at that moment. There's a spiritual quality to it, like he's trying to connect with something bigger than himself. He must have waited for hours to catch the light just right. It's a patient, thoughtful kind of photography. And it makes me think about other artists who’ve gone out into the landscape, like Agnes Martin or even some of the Hudson River School painters. Artists are always looking at the world and then trying to figure out how to capture it, how to make it their own. It's a conversation across time, an exchange of ideas that keeps inspiring new ways of seeing.