Ansel Adams shot the five images of his Surf Sequence in 1940 during a drive along the Pacific Coast in California, returning from a visit to his friend Edward Weston in Carmel. Stopping along the highway overlooking the ocean, the photographer was taken by the lacy patterns that the waves created, and he made several exposures on the spot. The resulting photographs beautifully captured both a sense of movement and the passage of time, as the sun gradually moved across the sky and the shadows lengthened while he worked. These nearly abstract ocean views suggest the idea of themes and variations that Adams, trained as a concert pianist, appreciated in classical music. Early examples of his serial imagery, they have proved to be some of his most influential work.

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