"Yosemite Valley, Winter" on an Unmolded Hills Brothers Coffee Can, 1969
Photolithograph on metal
7 x 18 inches
With Adams' credit and production date printed recto.
In 1969, Ansel Adams allowed his image “Winter Morning, Yosemite Valley, California” to be reproduced as a photolithograph on 3 lb. cans of Hills Brothers brand coffee. The idea, as...
In 1969, Ansel Adams allowed his image “Winter Morning, Yosemite Valley, California” to be reproduced as a photolithograph on 3 lb. cans of Hills Brothers brand coffee. The idea, as he later wrote in his autobiography, “was to produce something of lasting attractiveness after the original contents of the can had been consumed.” The move was decried by some of his peers as “selling out.” (Imogen Cunningham famously expressed her disapproval by sending him one with a marijuana plant growing inside.) Today, the Adams cans are seen as desirable photographic objects which speak to the age-old push and pull between art and commerce. The present example was never molded and as such is perfectly suited to hang on the wall, whether it "belongs" there or not.