Half Dome, Clearing Storm

 

Charles G. Henningsen

  1935 - 2016 (biography)

c. 1980  

silver gelatin print (photograph) 

15 x 18 7/8" image and paper, mounted to a 22 x 28" 4 ply rag support. 

pencil, lower right under image; ink signature and Studio stamp on verso 

not formally editioned 

Titled and dated in pencil on verso; Studio stamp on verso: "Chuck Henningsen (stamped signature) / 500 Portola Road / Portola Valley, CA 94025 / All Rights Reserved" 

 

photo paper mounted to 4 ply white rag board 

 

artist at Insulectro, Quintc Manufacturing and Vykra. 

19131 

$1,800.00 

The 1861 photographs of Carleton E. Watkins and the 1862 paintings of Albert Bierstadt brought the magnificent landscapes of Yosemite to the attention of the populace on the eastern coast. In 1872, Picturesque America was published by D. Appleton and Company of New York and people viewed these as a clarion call for travel and adventure. Awaiting their arrivals were granite peaks, lakes, mountain meadows, and spectacular waterfalls.On 20 June 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill passed by Congress that set aside Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. The bill stated that the lands be held “…for public use, resort, and recreation…inalienable for all time.” This marked the first time the U.S. government protected land for public enjoyment and it laid the foundation for the establishment of the national and state park systems. Yosemite National Park was designated by an Act of Congress on 1 October 1890, making it the third national park in the United States, after Yellowstone and Sequoia. Yosemite National Park encompasses 747,956 acres in the central Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in California. Approximately 95% percent of the park is federally designated wilderness. Yosemite National Park was declared a World Heritage Site on 31 October 1984.

Half Dome, Clearing Storm is a silver gelatin photograph By Charles G. Henningsen. It was printed about 1980 as a Christmas gift for the clients of his electronic businesses, Insulectro, Quintec Manufacturing, and Vykra, which he co-founded after working as one of the early Hewlett Packard engineers. After selling his electronics businesses, Henningsen studied photography with Ansel Adams and later worked with Adams at his studio in Yosemite.

With this image he captured the snow-covered granite cliff of Half Dome as a winter snow storm slowly dissipates; the mountain face and its surroundings becoming visible through the clouds. His lens captured a brief respite before everything closed in again.