Printed in the 1960's, this print is in near-pristine condition. Signed in ink mount recto; studio stamps (BMFA 7 & 8) mount verso. Ansel Adams made this seminal image in 1931, during a brochure commission from Mills College in Oakland, CA. Since then, the work has appeared in numerous monographs on Adams' work, and was one of 45 early images included in his landmark exhibition at Stieglitz's "An American Place" in 1936. This image predates the formation of Group f/64 in 1932, when Adams began making images in the modernist, formal tradition. "Leaves, Mills College" signifies the beginning of a new era for Adams. Ansel used this image to make his first Japanese folding-screen in 1936, and is therefore sometimes referred to as "Leaves, Mills College, Screen Subject". Karen E. Haas notes that "According to Adams, Leaves, Mills College was photographed on the Mills campus in Oakland, from the vantage of a bridge overlooking a waterway. The image captures a dense bower of ferns and leaves along the water's banks, as seen from above, like a modern-day millefleur tapestry. In fact, Adams claimed that when he showed this picture to the dean of fine arts at Yale in 1933, the dean was convinced that it was a reproduction of a tapestry or a painting, rather than a photograph from nature. Years later, perhaps with this in mind, Adams wrote that the photographic screens should feature 'patterns of leaves, natural or mechanical forms...patterns not dissimilar to tapestry effects, or to semi-abstract compositions." (Haas, Karen E. & Senf, Rebecca A. Ansel Adams in the Lane Collection. MFA Publications 2005. Page 141). Early prints of this image reside in the Princeton Art Museum and SFMoMA, while later prints of this size (appr. 11x14") are in the collections of the CCP and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Prints of this image made prior to the 1970's are extremely rare; the Gallery notes another 1960's 11x14" print in the Lane Collection, MFA, Boston.