Lot 82: PIRKLE JONES

PIRKLE JONES 1914-2009 'SURF-SPRAY AND SUN' mounted, signed in pencil and with the photographer's '2279 - 40th Avenue, San Francisco 16, Calif.' studio stamp and a 'Photography Collection of the Polaroid Corporation' label, with typed title, credit, and process and accession information in ink, on the reverse, 1952, printed no later than 1957 ( California Photographs , frontispiece) 6 1/4 by 8 1/8 in. (15.9 by 20.7 cm.)

Acquired from the photographer in May 1957 for the Library Collection

The photographer Pirkle Jones was long an associate of Ansel Adams, who selected several of Jones's images for the Library Collection. Initially Adams's student at the California School of Fine Arts in 1946, Jones later served as Adams's assistant from 1947 to 1953. In 1956, Jones collaborated with Dorothea Lange on a photographic essay of the Berryessa Valley, and with Adams in 1958 on a series of photographs of the Paul Masson Vineyards. Early prints of Jones's now-classic photographs of San Francisco, several of which are offered in this catalogue, are scarce.