Name: Toby Jurovics

Occupation: Curator of photography, Smithsonian American Art Musem

Residence: Woodley Park, Washington, DC

Why I chose this picture: Like most people, I first encountered Ansel Adams’ photographs in publications by conservation organizations like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. I was a mountaineer long before I was a curator, and his photographs were reminders of places I had been, and places I wanted to know better. Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, 1944 has been a favorite for almost three decades. Showing a pasture in the Owens Valley beneath the summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental United States, it is at once lyrical and majestic.