Over 70 original Ansel Adams photographs, which had been discovered decades ago in file cabinets and desk drawers across campus, were recently displayed at Dominican University of California to commemorate the 100th birthday of Adams.
The exhibit was the first time the bulk of the photos had been viewed by the public. Hundreds of Bay Area residents visited Dominican's San Marco Gallery to see the exhibit this past spring. Next year the photos will travel to the Ventura County Museum of History and Art in Southern California. The exhibit will be on display from June 1 through Labor Day, 2003.
Twenty years ago, Dominican alumna Lillian Machado Dickson, remembering that the famous photographer had taken her picture when she was a student at the university, went in search of the print. While she didn't find her photograph, dozens of original prints were discovered scattered across campus--in file cabinets, behind desks, and even tucked behind an old sofa--and luckily, most were in very good condition.
Dominican University of California (then Dominican College) had commissioned Adams to take pictures of the campus, its students, and rural Marin County between 1932 and 1952. The photographs were used for brochures promoting the intellectual, social, and cultural opportunities at the small women's college in San Rafael.
Dickson, along with staff and other alumnae, unearthed more than 100 photographs that Ansel Adams had taken during his 20-year tenure with Dominican. Several alumnae, who also had been photographed by Adams, recalled his friendly nature and remembered him as man of "great stature, an outdoors man" who "commanded the attention of his subjects with his presence" and seemed to be "a very important photographer"--although he wasn't yet famous.
These photographs in the Dominican private collection are extraordinary for many reasons. First, unlike most of Adams' work, the photographs feature people. Second, Adams only photographed two other universities in his lifetime: the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Rochester. Third, while these photos are an example of Adams' commercial work (as an emerging photographer, he was eager to support his young family), they interestingly reveal his lifelong interests such as music, astronomy, and, of course, nature. Fourth, in the 1930s, the Dominican Sisters hired the relatively unknown San Franciscan photographer because they were impressed by his artistic eye and technical skills. Fifth, the stunning photographs show rural Marin County, before the Golden Gate Bridge existed, and women in fashionable 1930s dresses (Adams was picky about which students he chose to shoot).
Taken at the beginning of Adams' fruitful career, these photographs--while at seems seem ordinary in subject matter--are startling examples of his technical excellence. In one picture of the library, it is possible to read the titles of the books in the middle distance. In another, a group of six women--who are walking through a grassy valley where cattle are grazing--are shrouded in that special kind of light that made his reputation.
The recent exhibition, 100 Faces--100 Years, Ansel Adams at Dominican, was sponsored by Wells Fargo along with exhibit underwriters Pillsbury Winthrop LLP and Bank of the West. This exhibition was held January 23 through March 2, 2002, in the Alemany Library Gallery at Acacia Avenue on the Dominican campus in San Rafael. Admission was free.
Dominican University of California, founded in 1890, is an independent, Catholic, international, learner-centered university located on 80 wooded acres in San Rafael, just 11 miles north of San Francisco. With a student body of over 1,600 men and women, the University offers more than 30 bachelor's and master's degrees.
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