Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 by Ansel Adams Wikipedia bio
Silver gelatin print, image size 15½ x 19 inches (39 x 48 cm.), perfect condition: $59,000
(I happen to have one in stock, for now, and prices for these prints can run thousands more.)
| Some Anecdotes about Moonrise by Ben Breard The power of an art masterpiece cannot be underestimated. I've spoken with numerous people who distinctly remember the first time they were face to face with an original print of Moonrise, and they were always eager to tell me about it. So I'll take a turn at it here. My first viewing was at The George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York. I even precisely remember the setting where it hung. This was around 1970, and little did I know that four years later I would be sitting on Adams' living room couch hearing him expound on how he greatly preferred the current way he was printing Moonrise, darkening the sky far more than in his early printings. |
Hernandez, New Mexico Today
| I've heard from many people
who have driven by Hernandez, and, universally, they were quite
disappointed. The above photograph was taken by my friend Gary G.
Price, and here is his account concerning this unimpressive view. "The camera location (36 degrees 03' 27"N, 106 degrees 07' 01" W, WSG 84 map datum) and angle were as close as I could achieve. The highway is wider now, so I was a little closer to the cemetery and lower than Ansel Adams had been on November 1, 1941. He had hastily set up his tripod on a platform mounted to the roof of his van, and the spot where he parked his van would today be in the middle of a busy four-lane highway (US Highway 84). My lens (the 35mm equivalent of a 91mm lens) seems to have had a slightly wider field of view (28.6 degrees) than the lens the Adams used." Please pardon further ramblings, but I have to share one crazy incident. Over the years at the gallery, I was beseiged with light bulb salesmen. Galleries, of course, used a lot of bulbs (before LEDs), even small locations like mine. One over-the-top salesman got hold of me on the phone. In his New York accent, he went on and on, getting carried away with his sales pitch. In his excitement-filled climax, he actually blurted, "You know that famous moonrise scene by Ansel Adams? It was my company's light bulbs that lit the whole thing!" I was so aghast, I didn't quite know how to respond, but his pitch failed...... |