One of America’s Most Important Photographs is in New Mexico

Through out history there are many historic photographs & it turns out one of the most important was taken in the 40s in a small New Mexico town. All thanks to a man named Ansel Adams, his love for art and photography & this iconic photograph he took of a moonrise in a small town called Hernandez.

The story behind the iconic Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico photo

According to Ansel Adams, the man who took the photo, he and his companions were traveling by car in the Chama Valley near the Colorado-New Mexico Border on an autumn day in 1941. After some nasty looking rain clouds moved away from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Ansel saw the moon in the sky glowing BRIGHTLY and he thought this was the perfect opportunity to take a photo.

So he stopped the car, grabbed his 8 x 10 camera, and took THIS photo that he would called "Moonrise, Hernandez":

Ansel himself goes into great detail into the story in an interview with the Getty Museum; the video was later uploaded onto YouTube.

If you want to go to the original spot of where the photograph was taken, you can. If you're on US-84, stop by the highway markers 194 & 195. Take a left on the small road across from the highway from the San Jose Church & you'll find the spot of the photo.

The area looks very similar on Google Maps like it did in the video too;

To this day it is classified as one of the most important & famous photographic images in history; the original print has gone on to be sold at auctions for over half of a million dollars. Even a mural sized print sold at a Christie's New York auction for $930,000 in 2021.

Of course this wasn't the only thing Ansel Adams is known for; you can see even more of his work, and people appreciating his photos in this video from The Art of Photography.

It's amazing how a photo of a moon can become one of the most important photos of American history. Just a nice reminder to always keep a camera on you; you never know what you'll find.

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