Ansel Adams's Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross: Nature, Photography, And the Search for California‪.‬

As Ansel Adams prepared for the exhibition of his Singular Images at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1974, he looked back over his illustrious career and complained. "Curator after curator had chosen the same small group of landscapes," he wrote. Approaching the Met exhibition, Adams argued that "I wanted this show to have a broader perspective, to show some of my portraits and a sizable excerpt of my work with Polaroid Land materials, a project that I had followed for over twenty years." And so he presented fifty-two practically unknown images--portraits, profiles of urban architecture, extreme dose-ups. Amongst these gems of the mature Adams oeuvre, one remarkable photograph stands out: Eucalyptus Tree, Fort Ross, California 0969). (1) In this vertical photograph, more portrait than landscape, the stately eucalyptus dominates the frame. Adams the modernist was of course drawn to the interplay of light and shade; the tree's gnarls and wrinkles, roots and drooping branches, give the photograph its rich texture. Breadth predominates, but a shadow of wispy branches falls into the top edges, suggesting height. In the background, two fences converse: At right, the tall boards of the stockade bespeak strength--they are hewn thick and topped with edges sharp--while at left, the undulating pattern of a garden fence speaks softly of pastoral dreams and boasts of its barn, behind. The eucalyptus's trunk, twisted, gives testimony to the offshore whispers of the sea breeze coming up from the cove.