A striking black-and-white photograph of the majestic Bridalveil waterfall is among numerous shots that landscape photographer Ansel Adams took with Polaroid film - a technology many celebrated artists embraced to produce innovative and surprising works. The mural-sized iconic image, “Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite,” is going on the auction block at a pre-sale estimate of $70,000 to $100,000. “It is the largest and best collection of works by Ansel Adams to ever come on the market, representing a broad spectrum of most of his career,” said Sotheby's photography expert Denise Bethel. The image is among 1,000 Polaroid and gelatin silver prints by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography being offered at Sotheby's on June 21-22 as part of a bankruptcy court-approved sale. The record auction price for an Adams photo is $609,600 for a gelatin silver print of “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,” also from 1941, sold at Sotheby's in 2006. An Adams portfolio of 12 Polaroid film images sold for $157,000 at Christie's in 2008.
