"Oak Tree, Snowstorm"
Yosemite National Park, California

gelatin silver print mounted on cardboard

portfoliostamp, titled and signed by Allan Ross on verso

Ansel Adams made this image in 1948 using an 8x10" view camera. This towering oak at the western fringe of El Capitan Meadow was among his favorite subjects. Since Adams first photographed the tree, age has taken its toll and it succumbed to fire in recent years. However, the towering cliffs between Bridalveil Fall and Cathedral Spires that lurk in the mists behind the oak in this photograph remain as solid as ever. The Sierra Club published Oak Tree, Snowstorm in 1948, along with 11 other photographs by Ansel Adams, in Portfolio I. Later, Adams selected it for his Museum Set Collection, a retrospective portfolio of what he considered his strongest work, and it appeared in Classic Images, the book based on the Museum Set. The image is one of Adams' icons, and has also been published in Ansel Adams Monograph, the Portfolios of Ansel Adams, Yosemite and the High Sierra, and Yosemite.

Of all the American landscapes that Ansel Adams immortalized through his images, Yosemite was the most deeply personal. In Yosemite he discovered his spiritual home and built his family. He first visited the Park in 1916 and he returned every year thereafter, meeting his wife there and then raising his family within Yosemite's splendor. Ansel hoped his images would inspire park visitors to become activists for Yosemite's preservation, instilled with a deeper connection to the natural world and desire to protect it. With that as his main goal, Ansel conceived this series of Yosemite Special Edition Photographs in the late 1950s. With images of Half Dome, Lake Tenaya, Merced River and more, he invited everyone to be of part of his "art as activism" by pricing the prints at an affordable cost. Today, with America’s wild spaces increasingly under threat, Ansel’s vision for the Special Edition Photographs remains as relevant as ever.
Yosemite Special Edition Photographs are the closest photographic reproductions to Ansel’s original masterpieces, painstakingly handcrafted from his negatives by former assistant Alan Ross. Alan Ross worked under Ansel’s direct observation from 1975 until 1984, and has been producing the series in accordance to Ansel's instructions ever since. Each silver photograph shimmers with brilliance, with richly perfected black and white tones. From a selection of 29 stunning images of Yosemite, each photograph is printed in 8x10 inches and authorized by the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.
(Ansel Adams Gallery)