Ansel Adams and Edwin Land:
Art, Science and Invention—
Photographs from the Polaroid Collection
Curated by Linda Benedict-Jones,
Executive Director of Silver Eye Center for Photography
and Barbara Hitchcock,
Director of Cultural Affairs, Polaroid Corporation.
“I look forward to trying the camera out… I am tremendously excited about the actual use in the field and studio. I think it promises to be one of the greatest steps in the development of photography. I only hope it will not be presented as a curiosity. I think the first presentation should include work by top photographers and show a broad range of application.”
— Ansel Adams in a letter to Edwin Land,
after his first visit to the Polaroid Factory.
Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1960
Edward Weston, Carmel Highlands, California 1945
The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
Still Life, San Francisco, California, c.1932
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941
Portrait of Dr. Land, Peterbury, New Hampshire, 1965
Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, California, 1944
Self-Portrait, c.1971
White Stump, Sierra Nevada, California, 1936
Pipes and Gauges, West Virginia, 1939
Woman Behind Screen Door, Independence, CA, 1944
Water Tower, San Francisco, 1961
American Photographer Ansel Adams (1902- 1984) possessed a unique sensitivity to the power of light. This gift allowed him to reveal both the delicate details and the vast beauty of the natural environment. Adam’s contemporary, Edwin H. Land was a brilliant young scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who pioneered the invention of instant film and cameras in the late 1940s. In 1948 Land invited Adams to the Polaroid factory to experience firsthand the new technology. After that first visit and some correspondence exchange, Adams became a consultant to Polaroid Corporation and close friends with Edwin Land, and the two— the artist and the inventor— exchanged ideas and inspired each other to explore new directions in their respective fields.
Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, features pristine, one-of-a-kind black-and-white Polaroid prints made by Adams, lively correspondence between Adams and Land, humorous postcards, and rare examples of Adams’ early commercial work. The exhibition also presents more than 80 prints, including vintage enlargements of Adam’s famed images Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, (1941) Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park (1960), as well as five photomurals of the American landscape. In all, the works on this show demonstrate the uncommon beauty that can occur through the conjunction of science and art.
WORKS
Aprox. 100
DIMENSIONS
8 x 10 to 26 x 30 (inches)
20.32 x 25.4 to 66.04 x 76,2 (cm)
SPACE REQUIREMENTS
325 linear feet (99,06 linear meters)
INQUIRIES
exhibitions@curatorial.org
626.577.0044
FEE
$15,000 for a six to eight-week period
American Photographer Ansel Adams (1902- 1984) possessed a unique sensitivity to the power of light. This gift allowed him to reveal both the delicate details and the vast beauty of the natural environment. Adam’s contemporary, Edwin H. Land was a brilliant young scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who pioneered the invention of instant film and cameras in the late 1940s. In 1948 Land invited Adams to the Polaroid factory to experience firsthand the new technology. After that first visit and some correspondence exchange, Adams became a consultant to Polaroid Corporation and close friends with Edwin Land, and the two— the artist and the inventor— exchanged ideas and inspired each other to explore new directions in their respective fields.
Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, features pristine, one-of-a-kind black-and-white Polaroid prints made by Adams, lively correspondence between Adams and Land, humorous postcards, and rare examples of Adam’s early commercial work. The exhibition also presents more than 80 prints, including vintage enlargements of Adam’s famed images Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, (1941) and
Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park (1960), as well as five photomurals of the American landscape. In all, the works on this show demonstrate the uncommon beauty that can occur through the conjunction of science and art.
WORKS
Aprox. 100
DIMENSIONS
8 x 10 to 26 x 30 (inches)
20.32 x 25.4 to 66.04 x 76,2 (cm)
SPACE REQUIREMENTS
325 linear feet (99,06 linear meters)
INQUIRIES
exhibitions@curatorial.org
626.577.0044
FEE
$15,000 for a six to eight-week period
