Carnegie exhibit follows Ansel Adams into Yosemite

Smartly dressed with four hired hands and 14 mules in tow, these were no ordinary campers. After all, three of the five were members of the eminent Rockefeller clan. The other two, no slouches in their own right, were photographer Ansel Adams and artist Georgia O'Keeffe.

A Sierra Club activist and self-described "constructive belligerent," Adams spearheaded the trip to show his friends the breathtaking beauty of the High Sierra, an area that he first visited with his family in the summer of 1916 when he was just 14 years old.

Back then, Adams took some of his first photographs ever with a Kodak Box Brownie camera given to him by his parents. He continued to return to the park every year of his life after that first visit, moving there to live full time in 1937 with his wife, Virginia.

But this particular trip was special, says Amanda Zehnder, Carnegie Museum of Art's assistant curator of fine arts.

"He wanted to show his friends how significant Yosemite was for him, and hoped that it would affect them the same way."

The Rockefeller men, both grandsons of William Rockefeller, were amateur photographers, and O'Keeffe, of course, was married to famed photographer Alfred Stieglitz. So it was a photography excursion of sorts, one that was memorable for all.

Following the expedition, Adams handcrafted photo albums that chronicled the trek for each of his friends.

One of those albums, which he gave to David McAlpin, is currently on display, page by page, in "Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe," on view in the Works on Paper Gallery at Carnegie Museum of Art.

The exhibition, owned and organized by the National Museum of Wildlife Art, has been on loan for display once a year since 2000, when McAlpin's second wife, Sarah Sage Stewart McAlpin, donated the album to that museum. Carnegie Museum of Art is the only venue for the exhibition in 2006.

The collection of landscapes, close-ups and posed photographs in the exhibition of 48 black-and-white silver gelatin photographs on 42 pages demonstrates the range of work for which Adams is known, but on a much smaller scale than many are used to.

"This album contains some of his most famous subject matter," Zehnder says. "Really grand landscapes, but on a small, jewel-like scale."

Cathedral Peak, Lyell Fork of Merced River and Glacier Polish -- they're all there, some of the most recognized places from his breathtaking photographs that forever have remained unparalleled in technical mastery over depth of field.

Though all of the images are small -- roughly 4 by 6 inches -- there is one large-scale print the likes of what Adams fans are used to. Titled "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley" (circa 1940), it was pulled from the permanent collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art for this exhibition.

"The level of detail, all of the different gray tones and the clouds, it's just amazing," Zehnder says of the 16- by 20-inch print. "This particular photograph is a really good example of his technique -- the way he figured out grayscale and composition and everything that he was famous for."

In addition to these recognized subjects, Adams reveals much about what was going on behind the making of these images with candid views of camp life.

For example, in "Lyell Peaks" one can see several pack mules laden with blankets and food, grazing in front of a backdrop of bare mountain peaks. In "David McAlpin and Bisquick," McAlpin smiles for Adams' camera holding a box of Bisquick while shrouded in a blanket.

The latter image is rather personal. An inside joke, undoubtedly, that alludes to the intimacy of the album.

"There are more pictures of David McAlpin probably (than in the other albums), because this was his album," Zehnder says.

Apparently, Adams' personal touch encouraged McAlpin's philanthropic side as a result. Inspired by the Yosemite trip, McAlpin afterward sent a donation of $1,000 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York with the request that the money be spent to purchase photography.

Later, McAlpin was instrumental in forming the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art and endowed a chair dedicated to the history of photography at Princeton University.

Of the remaining images of the fellow campers on display, one is particularly poignant. An untitled image, it features O'Keeffe sitting at the base of a tree trunk, staring pensively into the distance.

While O'Keeffe did not sketch or paint on the trip, she served as muse for Adams, who wrote in a letter to her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz:

"To see O'Keeffe in Yosemite is a revelation, for a while I was in a daze. She actually stirred me up to photograph Yosemite all over again."

Twenty years later, O'Keeffe, a lifelong friend, would write to Adams, "I often think of that trip at Yosemite as one of the best things I have done."

Related programs

• Photographic Journaling: Pointing the Camera at Your World. Photographer and Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Charlee Brodsky leads a gallery discussion on the exhibition "Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe," focusing on Adams' strategies for capturing and preserving special memories of travels and other experiences. At the second session, participants will work with their photographs to create a photographic journal. The class does not include darkroom work. 6-7:30 p.m. July 12 and 19. $60; $48 for members. Reservations required. 412-622-3288.

• American Photography: Pictorialism to F/64. Linda Benedict-Jones, executive director of Silver Eye Center for Photography, will lead session one at the center at 1015 E. Carson St. Using photographs in the center's exhibition "Pictorialism in Pittsburgh," Benedict-Jones introduces the early 20th-century pictorialist, or soft-focus, style. Session two at Carnegie Museum of Art introduces f/64, a group of experimental photographers, including Ansel Adams, who popularized a new, sharp-focus aesthetic. Session two includes a lecture and exhibition tour of "Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe." 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. July 18 and 25. July 18, meet at Silver Center for Photography; July 25, meet at Carnegie Museum of Art. $40; $32 for members. Reservations required. 412-622-3288.

• Lunch and Learn -- Ansel Adams: Photographer. Linda Benedict-Jones, director of Silver Eye Center for Photography, traces Adams' accomplished career and life, including his relationships with other professional photographers, in an illustrated talk. Following lunch, participants will view "Yosemite 1938: On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe" in the company of Carnegie Museum docents. 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. July 20. $40; $32 for members, includes lunch. 412-622-3288 or www.cmoa.org.

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