Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Ansel Adams" - New World

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The Tetons - Snake River (1942) by Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20,1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer born in San Francisco, California.

Adams was famous for his black and white landscape photographs of the national parks (Yosemite National Park was his main subject), and as an author of numerous books about photography, including his trilogy of technical instruction manuals (The Camera, The Negative and The Print). He co-founded the photographic association Group f/64 along with other masters like Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke, and Imogen Cunningham.

He invented the zone system [1], a technique which allows photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities on negatives and paper, thus giving them better control over finished photographs. Adams also pioneered the idea of visualization (which he often called 'previsualization', though he later acknowledged that term to be a redundancy) of the finished print based upon the measured light values in the scene being photographed.

"Some photographers take reality...and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation," was the way Adams explained his unique approach to photography.

William Turnage, his business manager, explains: "More than any other influential American of his epoch, Adams believed in both the possibility and the probability of humankind living in harmony and balance with its environment."

Life

File:Adams Leaf In Glacier National Park.jpg

Close-up of leaves In Glacier National Park (1942)

Farm workers at Manzanar War Relocation Center with Mt. Williamson in the background.

Ansel Adams was the only child of Charles and Olive Adams. When he was four, he was tossed face-first into a garden wall in an aftershock from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, [2]breaking his nose. His nose was never repaired and appeared crooked for his entire life.

He became interested in photography when his Aunt Mary gave him a copy of "In the Heart of the Sierras" [3] while he was sick as a child. The photographs in the book by George Fiske piqued his interest enough to persuade his parents to vacation in Yosemite National Park in 1916, where he was given a camera as a gift.

Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.

At age 17 Adams joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving the natural world's wonders and resources. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife, Virginia. Adams was an avid mountaineer in his youth and participated in the club's annual "high trips", and was later responsible for several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada. It was at Half Dome in 1927 that he first found that he could make photographs that were, in his own words, "...an austere and blazing poetry of the real". Adams became an environmentalist, and his photographs are a record of what many of these national parks were like before human intervention and travel. His work has promoted many of the goals of the Sierra Club and brought environmental issues to light.

Adams married Virginia Rose Best on January 2, 1928 in Yosemite (Her parents had met and married in Yosemite in 1901). They met in 1921 when he found a piano for practice at Best's Studio, a Yosemite concession selling paintings, photographs, books, and gifts. Virginia's father, Harry Best, was the owner. Ansel and Virginia had two children, Michael and Anne, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His son is a retired internist, retired Major General in the Air National Guard/USAF, and Chairman of the Board of the Ansel Adams Galleries in Yosemite and Monterey.

Photographs in Adams' limited edition book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, along with his Congressional testimony, are credited with helping secure the designation of Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks in 1940.

In 1940 he also helped organize the first public collection of photographs, at the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1946 he established, at the California School of Fine Arts, the first academic photography department.

During World War Two Adams worked on creating epic photographic murals for the Department of the Interior. Distressed by the Japanese-American Internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack Adams got permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, at the foot of Mount Williamson. The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as Born Free and Equal: Photographs of the Loyal Japanese-Americans at Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California.

In 1952 Adams was one of the founders of Aperture magazine.

Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships during his career. He was elected in 1966 a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1980 Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest was renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness in 1984 in his honor. Mount Ansel Adams, a 11,760 foot peak in the Sierra Nevada, was named for him in 1985.

Works

Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park (1942) by Ansel Adams

Adams Church, Taos, Pueblo (1942) by Ansel Adams

Notable photographs

Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, 1927.
Rose and Driftwood, 1932.
Clearing Winter Storm, 1940.
Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941.
Ice on Ellery Lake, Sierra Nevada, 1941.
Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox at Canyon de Chelly
Aspens, New Mexico, 1958.

Photographic books

America's Wilderness, 1997. ISBN 1561387444
California, 1997. ISBN 0821223690
Yosemite, 1995. ISBN 0821221965
The National Park Photographs, 1995. ISBN 0896600564
Photographs of the Southwest, 1994. ISBN 0821206990
Ansel Adams: In Color, 1993. ISBN 0821219804
Our National Parks, 1992.
Ansel Adams: Classic Images, 1986. ISBN 0821216295
These We Inherit: The Parklands of America, with Nancy Newhall, 1962. ISBN 0821207296
This is the American Earth, with Nancy Newhall, 1960. ISBN 0821221825
Born Free and Equal, 1944. Spotted Dog Press, ISBN 1-893343-05-7

Technical books

The Camera, 1995. ISBN 0821221841
The Negative, 1995. ISBN 0821221868
The Print, 1995. ISBN 0821221876
Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs ISBN 082121750X

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to::

Ansel Adams

Credits

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@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 He became interested in photography when his Aunt Mary gave him a copy of "In the Heart of the Sierras" [http://www.yosemite.ca.us/history/in_the_heart_of_the_sierras/] while he was sick as a child. The photographs in the book by [[George Fiske]] piqued his interest enough to persuade his parents to vacation in [[Yosemite National Park]] in 1916, where he was given a camera as a gift.
-Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. He later met his future wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.
+Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.
 At age 17 Adams joined the [[Sierra Club]], a group dedicated to preserving the natural world's wonders and resources. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife, Virginia. Adams was an avid mountaineer in his youth and participated in the club's annual "high trips", and was later responsible for several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada. It was at [[Half Dome]] in 1927 that he first found that he could make photographs that were, in his own words, "...an austere and blazing poetry of the real".  Adams became an environmentalist, and his photographs are a record of what many of these national parks were like before human intervention and travel. His work has promoted many of the goals of the Sierra Club and brought environmental issues to light.
+Adams married Virginia Rose Best on January 2, 1928 in Yosemite (Her parents had met and married in Yosemite in 1901). They met in 1921 when he found a piano for practice at Best's Studio, a Yosemite concession selling paintings, photographs, books, and gifts. Virginia's father, Harry Best, was the owner. Ansel and Virginia had two children, Michael and Anne, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. His son is a retired internist, retired Major General in the Air National Guard/USAF, and Chairman of the Board of the Ansel Adams Galleries in Yosemite and Monterey.
 Photographs in Adams' limited edition book, ''Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail'', along with his Congressional testimony, are credited with helping secure the designation of [[Sequoia_and_Kings_Canyon_National_Park|Sequoia and Kings Canyon]] as national parks in 1940.