• Original signed Ansel Adams gelatin silver photograph
• Image Date: 1930
• Print Date: 1930
• Signed:  "Ansel E Adams"
• Print Size: approx. 6"x8", overmat size 16"x20"
• Print Condition: Pristine
• Includes Certificate of Authenticity from The Ansel Adams Gallery
  

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This image is considered one of Adams' strongest early works, a masterpiece of composition, dramatic, complete. Very rarely do vintage pieces in such condition come to light, and this is a particularly special piece. For anyone who loves hiking or climbing in the mountains, cresting a high pass carries with it the thrill of success and anticipation.

From the 1930 Sierra Club Outing portfolio. Only 8 of these portfolios were made, this print is from portfolio #5. This portfolio includes many powerful images and several that reveal Adams’ creative development. Several are clearly more of a ‘memento’ nature, yet even these show elements of the creative genius that was fast developing. Several of the powerful images in this portfolio were included in Adams’ 1938 book Sierra Nevada: the John Muir Trail, and again in later publications. Most were not reprinted, whether due to stylistic changes, inadequate results on different papers, more attention to current negatives, forgotten negatives, or inadequate time. Late in his career Ansel lamented his inadequate time to revisit his early negatives, the world is probably poorer for that. The other side of that coin is that it makes these particular prints that much more rare.

Adams became the Official Photographer of the Sierra Club Outings in 1928, and made and sold portfolios of the 1928, 1929, 1930, and 1932 outings. These were sold to members at cost, approximately $30. The popularity of the portfolios may have declined with the onset of the Great Depression, only 8 were made in 1930, none in 1931, and the program stopped after 1932. Portfolios of 1930 Outing are known to exist at the Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) and the Getty Museum (Los Angeles).

Printed on Dassonville Charcoal Black paper. Adams used Dassonville Charcoal Black photographic paper from the late 1920s to approximately 1933. It had “an exceptional tonal range and depth with a matte surface.” He discontinued using it in favor of smooth, glossy photographic papers. Some images that printed well on this paper did not print as well (according to today’s tastes and standards) on more neutral toned paper.

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