ADAM CLARK VROMAN No. 1007 Pueblo of Tewa (The Trail) [Hopi] 1900 Platinum Print 8.2x6.5 on 8.25x6.3 in. paper ASG# AVI/038 Title in Vroman's hand margin below print 2/2 of title trimmed off

Sheep graze in the rocky trail leading to this Hopi Pueblo. In this tightly cropped vertical view by Vroman is reminiscent of William Bell views of the walls of the Grand Canyon and William Henry Jackson's views of the sides of steep valleys, showing more chaos in the natural order.

Alternate Titles: In Negative LL: 1007 (In Vroman's hand). Pasadena Public Library print: No 1014 00 Around Moki Towns, The Tewa Trail

Photographer and Bookseller Adam Clark Vroman (1856-1916) was the leading photographer of the Pasadena, California Arroyo Culture. He was the first important American photographer to use platinum prints to emphasize modernist tones and abstraction. He was the key Western American photographer using modern techniques and materials on living tribes and current traditions, rather than working in cultural preservation of a vanishing race. His landscape work is every bit as emotional as the later landscape work of Ansel Adams, Laura Gilpin, Edward Weston, and Paul Strand. In 1893 he moved to Pasadena and set up VromanÂ’s Bookstore, still in operation, where he sold books as well as photography supplies. He photographed primarily in Arizona and New Mexico.

The vast majority of his work was given to his photography collaborators, or to scholars and anthropologists. His primary archive of over 1,000 prints in albums are at the Pasadena Public Library and his negatives are at the Seaver Center, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum where the images are online.

Andrew Smith Gallery has been the leading dealer and collector of Adam Clark Vroman since the first an album in 1980. For a more detailed view of his life, work and materials:
https://www.andrewsmithgallery.com/exhibitions/misc/western/vroman.html

Very Good very light discoloration verso and margins, small mark in margin and print 1/4" top left minor wear