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Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

Born to a wealthy family in San Francisco, Ansel Adams began his creative career as a musician. He studied to be a concert pianist until his interest in photography drew him into that field. This devotion to images was sparked by a trip in 1916 when he was given a camera to record a family vacation to Yosemite National Park, where the grandeur of the natural beauty captured his interest. Little did he realize that this was the beginning of a remarkable career in photography.

The trend of the period was soft-focus photographs, and Adams followed that style until he met Paul Strand in 1930. Strand and others were depicting images that were sharply focused and full of rich detail. Upon this contact, Adams formally abandoned his study of music and devoted his life to photography. He moved to Yosemite in 1937 and began his near single-handed transformation of landscape photography into an art form.

Ansel Adams was a very modest, introspective man who devoted himself to the preservation and conservation of our national parks. Through his art, Adams helped the American people see and appreciate the emotional and cultural appeal of the parklands. His passion and perseverance, along with his talent, helped educate the world as to the importance of proper park management and availability. In 1979 President Carter honored Adams with the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Adams was known as man who thought you were either for preserving the environment or against it. There was no middle ground as far as he was concerned. This was echoed in not only his preservation work, but his photography as well. His images seem to burn into one's mind and remain.

In 1935 Adams published the first of many technical books, most illustrating methods that he developed. He helped found the photography department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1940, the first such department in any museum. In 1946 he established the first academic department to teach photography at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and also taught at the Los Angeles Art Center School. From 1955 to l981 Adams conducted annual photography workshops at Yosemite. He published more than two dozen books, including large photographic collections and his technical manuals.

Adams' photographic techniques were a foundation for generations of photographers that followed. He developed what he dubbed the "zone system" of photography. This technique divided the gradations of light in a scene into ten zones, from black to white. This allowed him to visualize the different levels of gray in the final photograph before he actually took the photo. This accuracy and control enabled him to capture such subtle changes of tone and light that he could return to photograph the same location time after time. Each of the images produced would be fresh and offer new detail, rather than being repetitious. It was almost as though he had control of the light and used it to its full advantage. This system remains the cornerstone of most of the great black and white photographers of today.

Adams' support of and friendships with other photographers prompted his formation of what he called "f/64", an influential group that took straightforward photographs in clear focus. Included in this group were Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, who were both very successful and respected photographers as well.

In 1967 Ansel Adams and other prominent photographers, artists and historians founded The Friends of Photography in Carmel, California. In 1989, five years after Adams' death, the center moved to San Francisco and opened the Ansel Adams Center for Photography in the Yerba Buena Gardens cultural district. In its 30 year history, it has sponsored more than 275 exhibitions, published more than 70 catalogues and anthologies on photography, presented more than 200 intensive workshops and classes and established two annual awards for outstanding emerging photographers. Additionally, the center has established a photography-in-the-schools program and other activities that involve the entire community in their commitment to developing new and diverse audiences for photography.

In recognition for this devotion to the national parks system, in 1984 the United States Congress established the Ansel Adams Wilderness Area, between Yosemite National Park and the John Muir Wilderness area in California. In 1985 Mount Ansel Adams, at the southeast boundary of Yosemite National Park, was named after him. Both were fitting tributes to a man who had devoted his life to tireless support and preservation of this remarkable place.

Ansel Adams Exhibitions

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ansel Adams--one of San Francisco's favorite sons--SFMOMA is presenting an exhibition featuring over 100 images by the beloved photographer and naturalist--Ansel Adams at 100. The first important critical reevaluation of his art since his death in '84, the exhibition presents an aesthetic reappraisal of Adams as an artist and working photographer, highlighting his achievement as one of the century's great modern artists. Through January 13.

Also in celebration, the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, salutes America's most heralded landscape photographer by presenting 13 of his works in Ansel Adams: The Man Who Captured the Earth's Beauty Part II, through April 28. The photos were taken in CA, WY, NM, TX and AK between 1930 and 1960.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 12 No. 1 -- November 2001