This extraordinary exhibit contains the 48 photographs that Adams considered to be his best work. Selected and printed by the artist himself, these images are currently on display for a short time at the Arlington Museum of Art. Adams had a camera platform mounted on his station wagon in the early ‘40s to afford him a better vantage point over the immediate foreground and a better angle for expansive backgrounds. Most of his landscapes from that time forward were made from the roof of his car rather than from summits reached by rugged hiking. It was his iconic images of the U.S. West that helped to establish photography as a fine art form. By scrutinizing an Adams photograph, details unseen from afar materialize in the photos’ shadows and highlights. You can see each blade of grass, the gradations in the clouds in the reflection of a lake, the fog, the veins in between the petals of a flower even in the darkness, and almost count the grains of sand in the photo of Death Valley National Park. (For those visitors who actually want to see the grains of sand, the museum offers magnifying glasses to inspect the photographs.) The exhibit also includes an hour-long movie about Adams’ life and works. We will leave at 9:30 am, enjoy the exhibit, eat at the Flying Fish Restaurant at 1:00 pm (at your own expense) and return around 3:00 pm.
Cost is $20 for members and $22 for nonmembers. Bus seating is limited so make your reservations early.