Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico

Ansel Adams took a famous photo.

It shows the moon in a dark sky. You can see small houses and white crosses. The sun makes the buildings look bright.

He took it in the late afternoon. He was on a road trip with his son. They saw a church and a graveyard. The sun was setting fast. He had to work quickly to catch the light. People love this special picture today.

Ansel Adams took a famous black-and-white photo in 1941.

The picture is called "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico." It shows the moon rising in a dark sky. You can see small houses and a church. There is also a graveyard with white crosses. Snow covers the mountains in the back. The setting sun makes the buildings and crosses look bright.

Adams was on a road trip with his son. He saw the scene in the late afternoon. He worked very fast to set up his camera. He knew the light would fade soon. Adams did not know the exact date he took it. Experts used the moon's position to find the date. They found he took it on November 1, 1941. This photo is one of his most popular works. He made over 1,300 prints of it. People value these prints very much today. Some prints have sold for a lot of money at auctions. This shows how much people love his art.

Ansel Adams created a very famous black-and-white photograph.

It is titled "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico." This image shows the moon rising in a dark sky. Below the moon, you can see small houses and a church. There is also a graveyard filled with white crosses. In the background, mountains are covered in snow. The setting sun makes the buildings and crosses look bright. People love this photo because it captures a special moment. It is one of Adams' most popular pieces of art.

Adams worked very fast to take this single image.

He was traveling with his son, Michael, and his friend, Cedric Wright. They saw the scene while driving through the Chama River valley. Adams felt the scene was fantastic and wanted to capture it. He yelled to his companions to help him get the shot. They had to scramble to set up a tripod and camera. They knew the light would fade away very quickly. This rush helped create the dramatic feeling of the photo.

This photo was part of a bigger job in 1941. Harold Ickes was the United States Secretary of the Interior. He hired Adams to take photos of protected lands. These photos were meant to be huge prints for a museum. Adams traveled around the West to find these beautiful places. He was working for the Department of the Interior at this time. This trip led him to the small community of Hernandez. It was a long road trip through the American West.

Scientists had to work hard to find the exact date.

Adams did not write the date on the photo. He remembered it was autumn but guessed the year. A man named David Elmore used a computer to help. He looked at where the moon was in the sky. He first thought the date was October 31, 1941. Later, Dennis di Cicco found a more exact time. He decided it was November 1, 1941, at 4:49 p.m.

Today, these photographs are very valuable to collectors. Adams made over 1,300 prints of this specific image.

Some prints have sold for huge amounts of money. One print sold for $609,600 at an auction in 2006. Another very large print sold for $930,000 in 2021. This shows how much people value his skill and vision. His work connects us to the beauty of the natural world. We can still see the places he visited today.

"Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" is a famous black-and-white photograph by Ansel Adams.

It captures a dramatic landscape in the American West. The image shows the moon rising into a dark, dominating sky. Below the moon, there are small houses and a church. A graveyard filled with white crosses sits near the buildings. In the distance, snow-covered mountains provide a bright background. The setting sun lights up the white crosses and the buildings. This photograph is considered one of Adams' most popular and important works of art.

The creation of this image was a very fast process.

Adams was on a long road trip through the West. He was traveling with his young son, Michael, and his friend, Cedric Wright. They were driving through the Chama River valley toward Española. Adams saw the church and cemetery and thought the scene was fantastic. He reportedly yelled to his companions to help him capture the moment. They scrambled to set up a tripod and camera. They knew the light would vanish almost immediately.

This trip was part of a professional assignment for the government. In October 1941, Harold Ickes hired Adams for a six-month project. Ickes was the United States Secretary of the Interior. Adams was tasked with photographing lands under the Department of the Interior's jurisdiction. These images were intended to be made into mural-sized prints. They were meant to decorate the new Interior Museum. This assignment gave Adams the opportunity to explore the American landscape.

Determining the exact date of the photograph was a complex scientific puzzle. Adams did not record the date when he took the picture. He remembered it was autumn, but he gave different years in different stories. A photographer and curator named Beaumont Newhall began investigating the mystery. He asked David Elmore from the High Altitude Observatory for help. Elmore used a computer to track the moon's position. He initially concluded the photo was taken on October 31, 1941, at 4:03 p.m.

However, further research by Dennis di Cicco changed the conclusion.

Di Cicco used a program to check the moon's position. He found that Elmore's date did not match the image perfectly. Di Cicco spent ten years working on this problem. He even visited the location in person. He discovered that Elmore's computer monitor had caused a distortion. Di Cicco eventually determined the date was November 1, 1941, at 4:49:20 p.m. This corrected the historical record for the artwork.

The photograph has achieved incredible success in the art market.

Because the original negative was difficult to work with, Adams later remade it. He heightened the contrast to make high-quality reprints easier to produce. This allowed him to create many versions of the work. Adams personally made over 1,300 photographic prints during his career. This high number of prints helped the image become a collectible treasure for many people.

Collectors pay very high prices for these famous prints today. One print sold for $71,500 in 1971. By 2006, that same print sold for $609,600 at a Sotheby's auction. In October 2021, a mural-sized print sold for $930,000 at Christie's. Another print by Peter Bunnell sold for $381,000 in 2023. These high numbers show the immense value placed on Adams' skill. His work remains a significant part of photographic history and the study of landscape art.