Cadence
of
Light
An Exhibition at The Ansel Adams Gallery
Photographs by Jeffrey Conley
Cadence of Light
An Exhibition of Photographs by Jeffrey Conley Hosted by The Ansel Adams Gallery
November 17th, 2024 through January 11th, 2025
Figure and Waterfall, Iceland, 2018
About the Artist
Hailing from New York state, Jeffrey Conley received a BFA in Photographic Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1991, he moved to Yosemite National Park where he photographed extensively and led seminars in photographic instructions.
Now residing in Willamette Valley of Oregon, Mr. Conley specializes in creating ethereal black and white prints. His subject matter is diverse, from urban landscapes and found still-lives, to studies of pristine wilderness. Each print he creates is meticulously crafted by him to his high quality standards with traditional darkroom processes or modern pigment mediums. Subtle aesthetic variation within printing decisions, in conjunction with processing and printing material alterations make each print a distinctly original creation. Each is made in small, limited editions.
His work has been widely exhibited and collected by private collectors and museums worldwide. Four monographs of his work, WINTER, REVERENCE, WEST and THE SHADOW’S VEIL, have been published by Nazraeli Press. Conley’s photographs strive for a balanced simplicity that evoke his sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world.
In all he seeks to capture a meditative spirit that uniquely defines his approach to photographing the landscape. He strives to create luminous prints that he feels possess a distinctive richness unique to traditional photographic processes.
Artist Statement
For as long as I can remember I have felt most at peace outdoors. Nature has always been my refuge and sanctuary. I find the natural world to be endlessly wondrous in its range of character and texture, from moments of delicate intimacy and subtlety to the massively expansive and powerful. Nature is in constant change, and photography is particularly well suited to capture and amplify the swirling fluidity and the wonderfully serendipitous moments born of the ephemeral. Photographing nature is a very specific kind of exercise in mindfulness; to be out in nature with senses responsive, keenly aware of circumstances and completely receptive, yielding to the present.
The photographs comprising this exhibition represent some of my observations while investigating nature over these last many years; moments that represent my awe, wonder, and affinity towards our earth.
The way I practice photography distills down to a two-step process: harvesting observations and then giving a voice to those observations through printmaking. I spend an enormous amount of time making prints, painstakingly printing and refining until I feel the physical print is expressive and resolved- this can take weeks or months. These days I print primarily using two processes: platinum/ palladium darkroom prints and carbon rich pigment prints on Japanese paper. Both methods are very delicate, luminous, expressive, and are printed individually by me in my studio. Now 35 years into my career as a photographer, I still find the act of photographing and printing to be akin to alchemy. I find the magic of the photographic medium to be endlessly inspiring.
Cadence of Light
Last Light and Distant Peaks, Oregon, 2023
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Clouds and Peaks, Montana, 2022
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Lone Tree and Cliffs, Engadine, Switzerland, 2020
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Last Light, Tree, Yosemite Valley, 2019
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Snow Covered Reflections, Yosemite, 2005
Falling Leaves, North Carolina, 2005
Purchase Artwork Platinum & Palladium Print
Candescence, Iceland, 2018
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Maple Detail, Oregon, 2014
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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River Delta 2, Iceland, 2018
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Water’s Edge, Venice, California, 2019
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Sunlight and Lake, Montana, 2022
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Waterfall Spray and Flight, Iceland, 2017
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Waterfall Profile, Yosemite, California, 2019
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Crow and Valley View, Yosemite, California, 2005
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Branch Detail, Yosemite, California, 2019
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Cliffside Trees, Engadine, Switzerland, 2020
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Trees in Snow Covered Field, Engadine, Switzerland, 2020
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Sierra Crest and Moon from the White Mountains, California, 2019
Archival Pigments on Japanese Kozo paper
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Please contact Curator Evan Russel with any questions
evan@anseladams.com
Front Cover: Candescence, Iceland, 2018
Back Cover: Wall of Poplars, Oregon, 2016
Cadence of Light
An Exhibition of Photographs by Jeffrey Conley Hosted by The Ansel Adams Gallery
November 17th, 2024 through January 11th, 2025
About The Ansel Adams Gallery
In the summer of 1901, a landscape painter and political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle by the name of Harry Best took an excursion to Yosemite Valley to camp and paint. Little did he know that this trip would have, indirectly, such an impact on so many, or that we, his descendants, would be telling this story now, over a century later.
That summer he also met Anne Rippey, a beautiful young woman working as an assistant in one of the photography studios in the Valley. After a whirlwind courtship, the two married on July 28 at the base of Bridal Veil Fall. After the ceremony, they stopped the incoming stagecoach to have everyone celebrate with them. (Rumor has it that several men were courting Ms. Rippey that summer, and Harry’s success lay in his persistence and having sent back to San Francisco for an engagement ring).
The proceeding winter, Harry applied to the U.S. Army, Yosemite administrators at the time, for a permit to operate a studio business. The following summer, in 1902, the Bests opened their studio in a tent in Yosemite Valley. Thereafter, Harry and Anne returned to Yosemite each summer. Eventually, paintings of his hung in the White House and San Francisco’ s Bohemian Club for many years.
Harry and Anne’ s daughter Virginia was born in 1904, and grew up spending summers in Yosemite until 1926 when the family took up full time residence in the Valley. In those years, Best’s Studio was the social center of the Valley . It housed the only piano in the Park and the lovely singing voice of Virginia Best.
Ansel Adams first came to Yosemite National Park in 1916. His goal of being
a concert pianist brought him in close contact with the Bests, and Ansel soon found himself visiting the Studio as much for Virginia’s company as to practice the piano. On January 2, 1928, Ansel Adams and Virginia Best were married in the newly constructed Best’s Studio in the “new village” in Yosemite Valley.
The addition of Ansel Adams to the family had a major impact on the business. At the time of the wedding, Ansel’s career as a photographer was just beginning. The Studio and Ansel had a symbiotic business relationship: Ansel providing high quality photographic material that appealed to visitors, and the Studio providing an outlet for his work and on-going financial support to a struggling artist. In this vein, The Ansel Adams Gallery continues to seek out and represent promising contemporary artists.
Ansel and Virginia had two children, Michael, born in 1933, and Anne in 1935. The family split its time between San Francisco, where Ansel still maintained the family home, and Yosemite. During the Second World War the family moved to Yosemite year round, and the children grew up in this idyllic spot.
Harry Best passed away in 1936, and Virginia inherited the business and operated it until 1971, when she and Ansel turned the company over to Michael and Jeanne Adams, their son and daughter-in-law. Throughout this time, Ansel and Virginia conscientiously shifted the focus of the Studio to offer merchandise and services that fit with an ethic to respect the landscape and draw inspiration and creativity from the beauty of the environment. Still family owned and operated, this ethic continues to guide The Ansel Adams Gallery today, while we continue to encourage the values, efforts, and sense of awe that Ansel held and personified.
