Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams is one of the most widely-acclaimed photographers in conservationist record. When his camera shutters closed, doors opened for invaluable wilderness works such as the Wilderness Act. A classical musician and profound idealist, his brilliant brain and great talent inspired the American mind, turning it toward conservation of wild spaces.

While officially possessing only a grammar school education, Adams was awarded six honorary degrees from schools including Berkley and Harvard, and two of the United States' highest civilian awards. The profound motivations behind his seemingly basic art–some of the most important pieces in conservation and world history–are full of political commentary. Adams' wide range of appeal spanned from some of the most intellectual thinkers in America to Playboy Magazine, from die-hard conservationists to those in the avant garde art scene.

Born to Charles and Olive Adams, two liberal thinkers, on February 2, 1902, he learned the beauty and glory of the outdoors under the inspiration of the ocean surrounding their home. His parents allowed Adams to leave public school at he 12 and formatted a home-schooling curriculum to fit their son. It included Greek, English classical literature, algebra, and music. His first piano teacher, Miss Marie Butler, demanded perfection, and taught Adams amazing discipline. 

Adams' classical music training was the primary focus in his youth–he was a brilliant player. But a gift of a Kodak Number 1 Box Brownie camera from his parents in the summer of 1916 drew his young, active mind in a new direction. James M. Hutching's In the Heart of the Sierras inspired him to see the stunning place described in the book. Clambering atop a stump in those mountains, Adams lined up his camera for one of his first photos. He hit the shutter just as the stump collapsed underneath him, capturing a perfect, falling shot at 180 degrees.

Adams' love for photography quickly developed on that trip to the Sierras. He took a part-time job working as a "dark room monkey," picking up and dropping off orders and developing and printing film. With no formal way in which to learn the art of photography, Adams absorbed as much information from his workplace as possible. But to continue his education and be closer to the mountains that inspired him, Adams took a custodial job at the Sierra Club's LeConte Lodge in 1920. After many trips to Yosemite National Park, he felt more than capable of living inside this fantastic place. Adams met many of the Sierra Club's members and created strong friendships with very important people in the conservation society, including Joseph LeConte, one of the foremost conservation scientists at the time. Here, Adam evolved as a both photographer and conservationist. 

Somewhat sickly and slightly manic about germs and disease prior to living in Yosemite, Adams felt mentally and physically stronger the longer he spent there–perhaps one reason he felt so connected to the wilderness. He developed the stamina on backcountry trips to haul camera equipment. His mental stability improved, and he practiced the great discipline learned as a young piano player, waiting hours for the right light to shoot a certain scene. The wilderness took hold of Adams, sending him on trips into untamed regions. He photographed the "wildness" of these pure, unadulterated areas–his source of inspiration–using techniques of the time and ideals of ancient art.

Back in San Francisco for the winters, he studied Greek, business, and accounting and reconnected with his love for the piano. Adam's loved the outdoors, yet summers in Yosemite meant a separation from the piano. But, he realized, maybe it did not have to be this way. His search for a piano in Yosemite brought a third love came into his life. Harry Best, a Yosemite landscape painter, answered the inquiry, and as Adams played Best's piano, he also became acquainted with Best's daughter Virginia. Only 17 when they met, a romantic, long-term relationship developed.

Switch from summers in the outdoors to winters spent away from the wilderness and Virginia kept Adams alert to what he must accomplish to attain the sort of life not only comfortable for him but Virginia as well. He spent winters giving piano lessons and pursuing work in the photography field. Music was taking the lead in Adams' life, but he stilled used photography to help establish himself in society. He told his father in a letter he felt photography would be only a hobby for him, yet summers in the Sierras proved to move him in a way music could not. He lamented his ability in music, realizing he would need years more experience to become a true master. This indecision between his two loves delay his marriage to his third. Virginia was patient and forgiving. 

Adams spent a total of five summers in Yosemite. A break finally came, in 1926, when Albert Bender (one of San Francisco's leading art patrons) saw Adams' work. They agreed to develop a portfolio of photos from the Sierras, published in 1927 and called Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. One hundred copies were released. At fifty dollars for a set of 18, the price for Adam's prints was high for the time, especially for such an unknown artist. With Bender's connections and standing in the art community, the collection sold in unheard-of quantities. Bender's firm belief in Adams' talent convinced many to buy the compilation sight unseen. Thus began of Adams' introduction to the world of high art. 

"Couple Hikes to the Altar," read the headlines on January2, 1928, at last announcing the marriage between Ansel Adams and Virginia Best. And with it came another decision. The art of Paul Strand and writings of Edward Carpenter and John Muir led Adams closer to what he felt was his true calling: The outdoors. The effects that the gold rush, hydraulic mining, and general inhabiting of the Sierras showed plainly on the great mountains, and many of Adams' favorite authors spoke out against further devastation of the area. Adams, too, sought to bring his love of photography and his growing concern for conservation together. 

In the spring of 1928, he began work with Mary Austin, a well-established international writer in her sixties. At first, Austin's demanding nature intimidated Adams, but he grew to enjoy her company and skill. They made final plans in 1929 to collaborate on a project involving Taos Pueblo, an ancient Indian community. Taos Pueblo was the final production of their collaboration and one of Austin's last works. She was one of many impressive characters Adams would work with, including modernists such as Mabel Luhan. While working on Taos Pueblo, he met John Marin and Georgia O'Keefe. Each of these talented artists opened doors for him to explore, exposing him to many different styles. Escapism, modernism and art as a statement of culture were only some of the artistic disciplines Adams absorbed during this time. 

In the early 1930's, Fortnightly, the local arts journal, received a review of Edward Weston's current exhibition–the first written by Adams. Unimpressed with Weston's work the first time he saw it in 1928, Adams new understanding of modernism led him to praise Weston's work. A mutually beneficial camaraderie ensued. In 1931, Weston agreed to help support a f/64, a group named after one of the smallest settings of common camera lenses and set on carrying their beliefs and ideals of precision through photography.

The group filled with some of the most influential personalities of the time–Adams, Weston, Willard VanDyke, John Paul Edwards, Imogen Cunningham–all of whom seemed ultimately concerned with realism in photography. Adams debated those who supported new, soft photography. Dadaism, cubism, and collage photos were becoming popular, and f/64 fought against this type of construed photography, continuing with modern developments in photography while straying very little from the natural effect they still stood by. 

Though in the midst of economic depression, Adams made a decent taking commercial assignments, lecturing, and selling his work, largely from Yosemite. Tourism in Yosemite grew to massive proportions as America edged out of the Depression. The upward rise of the economy left many with extra money and time. This was an era of great improvement in national morale and economy. And yet, though Yosemite's current reigning tourism agency requested the well-known, eccentric Adams to take photographs for their winter program expansion, he and many other conservationists questioned the hordes of tourists pouring into the nation's parks. His concerns, however, were put on the back burner: Virginia was pregnant, his responsibilities in the Sierra Club were only growing, and work in his father-in-law's studio continued. 

Adams kept developing in the art community as life unfolded. In 1933, the same year his son was born, he opened his first gallery in San Francisco. Inspired by Sierra Club members and the artist Dorothea Lang, Adams also lobbied in Washington, D.C. for the Kings River National Park Bill that year. In 1934, he accepted a position on the Sierra Club's Board of Directors  (where he served for 37 years) and a daughter was born in 1936. The next year, Virginia's father died. The Kings River bill was signed into law in 1940 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who kept a copy of Adams' book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, in the White House. Ansel Adams–a commonly known name, one respected by people in walks of American life.

Adams held strong connections with many influential people, Presidents Johnson, Ford, Carter, and Reagan and Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes, among them. He used his standing as a well-known and well-respected photographer to aid the conservation movement. In 1980, President Carter awarded Adams the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest medal a civilian can receive. In 1983, a year before his death, Adams openly opposed President Reagan in a Playboy interview, and Reagan invited Adams to the White House to discuss conservation.

Between 1938 and 1983, Adams wrote and contributed to many books, ranging from children's travel volumes to novels addressing serious political issues. Most of Adam's books carried a strong conservation theme, while others focused on the camera and its use. His children's books sought to teach young readers about the beauty of the outdoors in their own terms. Adams broke new ground for civil rights with photographs detailing the Japanese Americans in internment camps. In September 1979, however, Adams found himself on the other side of the lens, posing, camera in hand, for the cover of Time Magazine.

Adams used all of this to advance his values and ideals surrounding the conservation movement he so strongly supported. With his brilliance and adventurous spirit, Adams became a rugged, yet refined pioneer of the conservation movement. He spent endless hours in the mountains living in the rough but also sat in the White House as a celebrated guest. A very outspoken man passionately in defense of the outdoors, even his death came with a statement of preservation.

There was no funeral after Ansel Adams passed away due to heart failure on April 22, 1984. He had instead requested just a small concert for friends and family, performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Adams was survived by his wife, Virginia, and his two children.

That same year, Congress enlarged the Minarets Wilderness, near Yosemite, to over 200,000 acres and renamed it the Ansel Adams Wilderness. On April 22, 1985, exactly one year after Adams' death, an 11,000 foot mountain on the boundary of the Yosemite Wilderness was named Mount Ansel Adams.

Timeline

1902  Born February 20, in San Francisco. 

1914  Interest in music grows. 

1916  Takes pictures with his very first camera on a family trip to Yosemite National Park. 

1917  Gets job at photo processing business. 

1922  Publishes first article in Sierra Club Bulletin. 

1927  Publishes first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. 

1928  Marries Virginia Best in Yosemite. 

1930  Publishes Taos Pueblo. 

1931  Has an exhibition of 60 prints at the Smithsonian Institution. 

1932  Co-founder of photography group, "f/64". 

1933  Opens his own gallery in San Francisco. 

1935  Publishes Making a Photograph: An Introduction to Photography. 

1938  Publishes Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail. 

1940  Helps found Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art. 

1941  Publishes Michael and Anne in Yosemite Valley. 

1946  Publishes Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley. 

1948  Publishes Photo Series I: Camera and Lens and 2: The Negative and Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. Issues Portfolio I. 

1950  Publishes Basic Photo Series 3 and My Camera in Yosemite Valley. Issues Portfolio 2. 

1952  Publishes Basic Photo Series 4. 

1953  Does Life magazine photo essay on the Mormons in Utah. 

1954  Publishes Death Valley, Mission San Xavier del Bac, and The Pageant of History in Northern California. 

1956  Publishes Basic Photo Series 5. 

1958  Publishes The Islands of Hawaii. 

1959  Publishes Yosemite Valley. 

1960  Publishes This is the American Earth, and releases Portfolio 3. 

1962  Publishes Death Valley and the Creek Called Furnace and These We Inherit: The Parklands of America. 

1963  Releases Portfolio 4. 

1970  Publishes The Tetons and the Yellowstone. 

1975  Helps found Center for Creative Photography at University of Arizona. 

1976  Publishes Photographs of the Southwest. 

1978  Publishes Polaroid Land Photography and Ansel Adams: 50 Years of Portraits. 

1979  Publishes Yosemite and the Range of Light. 

1980  Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Carter. 

1984  Dies on April 22.

Books and Other Works by Ansel Adams

• Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, 1939

• A Pageant of Photography, 1940

• Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley by Virginia and Ansel Adams, 1940

• The Four Seasons, 1940

• Michael and Anne in the Yosemite Valley, 1941

• Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada (text by John Muir, edited by Charlotte E. Mauk), 1948

• Exposure Record, 1948

• Camera and Lens, 1948

• The Negative, 1948

• Making A Photograph 1934, 1949

• The Print, 1950

• My Camera in the National Parks, 1951

• Austin, Mary; The Land of Little Rain, 195

• Natural Light Photography, 1952

• Yosemite Valley, 1959

• This Is The American Earth, 1960

   

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