ADAM CLARK VROMAN No. 1086 00 On The Way To Acoma (Window Bridge) 1900 Platinum Print 6.1x8.25 in. on 6.25x8.4 in. paper ASG# ACV/1226 Verso in pencil #1086 Window Rock from near Enchanted Mesa. 1086 in negative LL.

Vroman uses light on the desert scrub in the foreground leading to the shadows and mass of the pinon and juniper trees and the sandstone buttes drawn up and back in the image to the glorious New Mexico clouds. The sublime view of nature is enhanced with this classical early Twentieth century motif. The subject, the Window Bridge, shows as a tiny circle near the top of the formation on the left.

Provenance: John O'Hara Album

Vroman's platinum print masterpieces of Clouds rendered the drama and emotional power of pre-visualization, capturing the moment according to the paper and materials. Vroman's high drama in these Cloud views were achieved by Ansel Adams in the 1930s and 1940s, by Paul Strand when he was in Taos in the early 1930s and by Edward Weston most notably on his Guggenheim trip through Arizona and New Mexico in 1941. Vroman was modern in his approach and materials well before Modernism became a movement espoused by the California F-64 School.

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 Vroman's Bookstore, still in operation, where he sold books as well as photography supplies. He photographed primarily in Arizona and New Mexico.

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

Excellent. Minor wear, light discoloration verso