Rocks & Mist, Otter Cove, Big Sur

About Artist

Alan Ross is an internationally respected master photographer and educator who expresses his unique vision with a combination of traditional photographic craftsmanship and today’s technology.  His tonally exquisite photographs take the viewer from the grandeur of the American West to the changing faces of China to abstractions created by the relationship of objects both natural and man-made. Each image is a pure visual and emotional response to subject matter, executed with an exacting eye and superior technical artistry.

Alan honed his vision and technique while working side-by-side with Ansel Adams in the field and in the darkroom as his full-time photographic assistant. He was integrally involved with Adams’ books, teaching in Yosemite and production of fine prints. Alan was personally selected by Adams to be the exclusive printer of the Yosemite Special Edition Photograph negatives, an assignment he has enjoyed for nearly 50 years. As such, Alan knows Ansel’s approach and technique perhaps better than any other photographer today.

In 1979, Alan left Ansel and Carmel to open a commercial photography studio in San Francisco, where he enjoyed working on projects ranging from world-wide campaigns for the Bank of America to landscape murals for the National Park Service.

He relocated to Santa Fe in 1993 and enjoys pursuing his art, teaching, writing articles, and traveling the globe speaking about his years with Ansel and the impact that had on his own work.

Alan is also a consummate and dedicated photographic educator who gladly shares his vast knowledge of the art and craft of fine art photography, inspiring professionals and amateurs alike as they work to realize and refine their photographic voice.

His photographs hang in collections, galleries and museums around the world, including the George O’Keeffe Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Huntington Library, the Center for Creative Photography, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Yale Museum of Art and other public and private collections.

Story Behind the Image

Some years back, I wrote a blog titled Too Close To Home. In it, I talked about the problem of becoming so familiar with your own surroundings, you become blind to the photographic opportunities right in your own backyard.

In 1974, through a wonderful set of circumstances, Ansel Adams asked me to be his full-time assistant. I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Carmel. I was thrilled to be surrounded by such wonderful photographers and scenery. It was inspiring, to say the least.

I photographed in Big Sur, Point Lobos, Cannery Row and any and all places in between. As my time in Carmel stretched to three, four and then five years, I found myself photographing less and less in the area. 

Although I always had my 4x5 camera with me, I found excuse after excuse not to photograph. The "light wasn't right," "the weather was blah," "I was late for..." 

I left Ansel's employ in mid-1979 to move to San Francisco and open my own advertising studio. Ironically, one of my first major assignments was to make 8x10 fine-art seascape images of the Big Sur area for a major computer company!

It was December of 1980, and I was headed to Carmel for Ansel's annual New Year's party. Since I had this new assignment, I was loaded with my 8x10 camera and lots of film.

Just a mile-and-a-half south of Ansel's house, I stopped at a turn-out I had never bothered with before in all my trips up and down the Big Sur coast. Rocks and Mist was made that morning.

It took an external impetus to force me to see the too-familiar as new.

Print Information

Limited Edition Prints signed and numbered in an edition of 100. Each print is made personally by Alan Ross, printed either on Ilford Multigrade Classic fiber paper (SGP) and selenium toned or on Canson Platine paper (APP) using a Canon Pro-1000 printer and my personal printing profiles. Mounted and over-matted with 4-ply or 8-ply museum board using the most current industry standards for archival permanence.

Prices and availability subject to change without notice.

Ordering Information

Original photographs are hand-made, and not all sizes are kept in inventory.
Special orders from the photographer may take 4 to 6 weeks for delivery.

Please contact us at sales@anseladams.com if you have any questions about shipping and delivery.