“HE ELEVATED THE ACT OF PHOTOGRAPHY TO A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE": BEAUTIFUL EXHIBITION-SIZE POSTER, BOLDLY SIGNED BY ANSEL ADAMS, DISPLAYING A FINE LARGE IMAGE OF HIS PHOTOGRAPH, ASPENS, NORTHERN NEW MEXICO, HANDSOMELY FRAMED

ADAMS, Ansel. Poster signed. Aspens. Camera. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1981. Large photographic poster (image measures 19 by 23-1/2 inches), printed caption below image, signature on recto, framed (total measures 26 by 36-inches). $5000.

Large 1981 poster boldly signed by Ansel Adams, featuring an exceptionally fine image of his soaring Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958—"an Adams masterpiece"—one of the first in a select grouping to feature an image personally chosen by Ansel for a poster to replicate "as closely as possible the quality of his originals… Adams supervised the first print runs; the posters were so good that he chuckled that the one of Aspens in particular looked better than a print made in the darkroom"(Alinder), issued to commemorate his photobook, The Camera, a splendid framed exhibition-size poster, scarce signed.

Near the end of his life, Ansel Adams "decided to produce a series of posters replicating as closely as possible the quality of his originals. Ansel chose three images to begin with—Moonrise, Clearing Winter Storm, and Aspens (vertical)—and made extra-large prints of each so that they could be directly laser-scanned with no enlargement. Each poster was designed to highlight a recent book. Ansel's favorite printer, David Gardner of Gardner Lithograph, made superb duotone reproductions on heavy coated stock, and the combination of laser-scanning and exquisite printing resulted in an image with a huge range of clearly defined tones… Ansel supervised the first press runs; the posters were so good that he chuckled that the one of Aspens in particular looked better than a print made in the darkroom." This scarce exhibition-size signed poster, with its soaring image of Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958—"an Adams masterpiece"—is within that select first group, and highlights his photobook, The Camera. To famed MoMA director of photography, John Szarkowski, these landscapes by Adams "are his greatest pictures… where his most original, most intense work has been done. Ultimately that's going to be how we remember him" (Alinder, 337-8, 305, 313). "Adams photographed landscapes with razor-sharp precision and an incomparable eye… He elevated the act of photography to a religious experience" (Icons of Photography, 96). Precedes the limited series of 350 signed photolithographs. Poster designed by Steven Harvard; printed by Gardner/Fulmer. With printed copyright of the Trustees of the Ansel Adams Published Trust at lower edge.

A fine signed print, handsomely framed.