Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Ansel Adams

Half Dome, Blowing Snow, Yosemite National Park, California

Description

Maker

Ansel Adams (American, 1902-1984)

Title

Half Dome, Blowing Snow, Yosemite National Park, California

Year

ca. 1955

Medium

  • gelatin silver print

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • gelatin silver print

Materials

black and white photograph

Dimensions

Image/sheet: 35.9 x 47.6 cm (14 1/8 x 18 3/4 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed in pencil on mount at lower right:Ansel Adams

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts

Object Number

75.097

Type

  • Photographs

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Books

America in View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

America in View
Landscape Photography 1865 to Now
Sep 21, 2012 – Jan 13, 2013

Label copy

This photograph depicts the iconic tourist destination of Yosemite as sublime and untouched. By removing any evidence of human impact, Ansel Adams allows us to escape (at least temporarily) from the intrusions of culture. High contrast adds visual drama to an already majestic view, capturing the textures of the rock wall and the light filtering through the blowing snow. Throughout his life, Adams embraced the notion that nature could provide the harried, urbanized citizen of the modern age with a place of spiritual refuge. A long-time member of the Sierra Club, he was a devoted and vocal advocate for wilderness conservation and his photographs were crucial to the conservation effort.

Capturing the Light
150 Years of Photography
Sep 22, 1989 – Nov 12, 1989

Use & Feedback

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Ansel Adams (American, 1902-1984)
Half Dome, Blowing Snow, Yosemite National Park, California, ca. 1955
gelatin silver print
Image/sheet: 35.9 x 47.6 cm (14 1/8 x 18 3/4 inches)
Museum purchase with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts 75.097

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use