Ansel Adams, The Newhalls, and one of MoMA’s First Photography Exhibitions

Brown, R.W. (1941, January). FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER; Modern Museum, With an Exhibit of Sixty Pictures, Surveys ‘Camera Esthetics’ The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1941/01/05/archives/for-the-photographer-modern-museum-with-an-exhibit-of-sixty.html

On December 31, 1940, the Museum of Modern Art in New York opened Sixty Photographs: A Survey of Camera Esthetics, the inaugural exhibition of its brand-new Department of Photography. It was a turning point not only for the museum, but for the art of photography itself.

At a time when many still doubted that photography could take its place alongside painting and sculpture as a fine art form, MoMA staked its reputation on the opposite view. Beaumont Newhall, the museum’s first curator of photography, defended the art form as deceptively accessible, arguing that “through the very facility of the medium, its quality may have become submerged.” The purpose of his department, and of his exhibition, was to elevate work of true artistic merit and to “suggest the possibilities of photographic vision.”

Adams and Newhall: the Beginning of a Partnership

Helping to shape that vision was Ansel Adams. He had met Beaumont and Nancy Newhall just the year before, in 1939, sparking a professional and personal relationship that would last for decades. Together, Adams and Newhall selected the images that would mark this new era for MoMA’s engagement with photography.

Adams’ own contributions—”Autumn, Yosemite, 1939,” “Early California Gravestone, 1934,” and “Leaves, 1935”—were displayed alongside works by Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Matthew Brady, and Man Ray. In this company, Adams’ photographs demonstrated the breadth of photography’s artistic power: from lyrical landscapes to intimate studies of detail.

White Tombstone, Laurel Hill, San Francisco,
Original Gelatin Silver Photograph
Negative: 1958 | Print: 1973 – 1977
20×16″ | Excellent Condition
Signed “Ansel Adams”

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Ansel Adams photographing in Yosemite, 1943. Photo courtesy of the Adams’ family archives.

For Adams, the exhibition was more than a professional milestone; it was the start of a profound artistic collaboration. The Newhalls, Beaumont and Nancy, would become two of his greatest advocates. Nancy Newhall later worked closely with Adams as a writer and editor, helping to create his 1960 book, This Is The American Earth and collaborating with him on numerous other projects. Her words and vision shaped the way he presented his work to the public. Simultaneously, Beaumont Newhall’s curatorial influence cemented Adams’ place in the canon of photographic history.

A Lasting Legacy

Looking back, Sixty Photographs was not only a triumph for MoMA—it was a watershed for photography itself. It affirmed photography’s place within the institutions that shaped modern art, laying the foundation for its acceptance and celebration worldwide. As for Ansel Adams, it marked the beginning of a powerful friendship that would help sustain and amplify his legacy as an artist and advocate for the medium he loved.