Carolyn Anspacher
date: label: negative made
content: ca 1932
label: print made
content: 1968
name: label: maker
content: Adams, Ansel
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Silver gelatin, mounted. Three-quarter head shot, woman with dark hair pulled back. Looking to the left. Woman not smiling. Can see pores and fine hairs on her face. Signed, ink (recto: bottom right). Verso: Adams stamp, title handwritten.
label: Description
content: This photograph is unusual for two aspects not usually found in Adams’ most popular works – a human subject and artificial light. Carolyn Anspacher was an actress and journalist, as well as a lifelong friend of Ansel and Virginia Adams; Ansel’s inspiration for this portrait was not the idea of taking a candid snapshot of a friend, however. Adams wrote that the rigid, classical portrait was called “The Great Stone Face” by some, but that he “had a strong conviction that the most effective photographic portrait is one that reveals the basic character of the subject in a state of repose, when the configurations of the face suggest identity and personality” (“Examples,” p.37). The photographer’s satisfaction with this portrait led him to take several similar portraits throughout the 30s.
label: Description
content: Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is one of the most well-known twentieth century photographers. His contributions to the field of photography include his innovation and teaching of the Zone System. The quality of his photographs set the standard by which many straight photographs are judged.
label: Description
content: The collection in the Photographic History Collection consists of twenty-five photographs, all printed in or about 1968. All are gelatin silver, mounted, labeled and signed in ink by the photographer. The photographs include some of his most well-known images, but also portraits and objects. The selection of images was made in collaboration between the collecting curator and Adams.
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, San Francisco
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
label: See more items in
content: Photo History Collection
label: See more items in
content: Ansel Adams Collection
label: See more items in
content: Photography
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Reproduction rights held by the Center for Creative Photography--ARIZONA
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PG.69.117.20
label: accession number
content: 282104
label: catalog number
content: 69.117.20
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photograph
label: Object Type
content: photographs
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 45 cm x 35.5 cm; 17 23/32 in x 13 31/32 in