Ansel Adams

“Adams had a superior alertness to the gestures of the natural world, in their simplicity and their subtlety. And that was half the story. The other half was a rare sensitivity to his medium that allowed him to devise pictorial solutions that could stand as a surrogate for the experience. The experience, of course, is incommunicable.”

— John Szarkowski

Few explorations of the history of photography or its pantheons can survive the omission of Ansel Adams. And to our purview, few explorations of the history of nature conservation and documentation can survive his omission. One could dedicate significantly more space than a single newsletter to the splendor of his photography and life, so consider this succinct summary an Adams 101.

Born in 1902 in California, Ansel Adams was 12 years old when John Muir died. Like “The Father of the National Parks,” Adams was drawn to the beauty of the mountains, particularly Yosemite Valley and the Sierra range. He would spend a large portion of his life in the aid of the Sierra Club, co-founded by Muir, and the National Parks Service, which owed Muir a tremendous debt.

Though known today primarily as a photographer, Adams was drawn in his early life to music and planned to become a professional pianist. His musical skill was significant, but by the 1920s, his true genius had started to consume his creative endeavors. Originally dabbling in pictorialism (think paintings on film), then en vogue, Adams eventually arrived at an approach that opted for realistic, sharp, precise, and tonal facets, leaning on contrast. This style of “pure photography” made him world-famous.

In 1927, with the help of patron Albert Bender, Adams produced the first portfolio in this distinct style, called Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. The work contained one of his most famous images: Monolith, the Face of Half Dome.

After the success of his initial portfolio, Adams never looked back and became a living photographic legend. He cataloged some of the greatest landscapes in the United States. He worked for the Parks Service, tasked with capturing a photograph in each National Park. There were 28 at the time and he made it to all except Everglades. He helped establish a photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. At the time, photography was not seen as haute culture, with many institutions deeming it unworthy to reside next to paintings and sculptures. The spark of Adams went a long way toward changing those attitudes.

Adams spent large portions of his life and his celebrity cachet to promote conservation. He served on the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors. Adams possessed a true wonder of nature, stating once, “The whole world is, to me, very much “alive” – all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can’t look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life – the things going on – within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.”

He took the first official photograph of a U.S. president and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. From 1955 to 1981 he taught annual workshops in Yosemite, garnering thousands of students. Adams died in 1984 at the age of 82.

John Szarkowski, director of photography of MoMA from 1962 to 1991, noted of Adams’ status: “The love that Americans poured out for the work and person of Ansel Adams during his old age, and that they have continued to express with undiminished enthusiasm since his death, is an extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps even unparalleled in our country’s response to a visual artist.”

At some point, a discussion of Adams produces diminishing returns and one is really best served looking into his work – as Adams said, “A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.” Here I’ll yield and provide you with a quick gallery to gaze into.