Horseshoe Falls with Spring Ice

© Estate of John Pfahl, 1985, from the Collection of the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University. No reproduction without the permission of the owner.

Horseshoe Falls with Spring Ice, 1985

John Pfahl   —  
  • American
  • 1939-2020

  • 1985:039.083
  • Ektacolor color-coupler print
  • Arcadia Revisited
  • 16 x 20 in.
  • Collection of the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, Purchase, part of the Artist's fee paid by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Institute for Museum Services, 1985

This photograph is part of a series inspired by artist Amos W. Sangster’s comprehensive 1888 print portfolio, The Niagara River and Falls from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, donated to the Castellani Art Museum in 1982. Photographer John Pfahl was commissioned to create a photography series that would celebrate the importance of Sangster’s earlier documentation. Pfahl used Sangster’s working methods as closely as possible, spending many days hiking along the Niagara River, finding the artist’s vantage points, and most importantly, approaching his subject with the same reverent appreciation and painterly aesthetic applied by Sangster. Pfahl produced 52 images that combine a 19th century sense of the sublime with his own uniquely spiritual attitude towards nature. see https://castellaniartmuseum.org/exhibitions/lake-to-lake-john-pfahl-and-amos-w-sangster