The Lion of Landscapes: Ansel Adams
Perhaps remembered mostly for his black and white photographs of California’s Yosemite Valley; Ansel Adams an American photographer (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) nurtured a love for photography, the printed word and the piano. During his lifetime, Adams authored numerous books on photography as well as along with masters like Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham among others, co-founded the photographic association Group f/64.
He famously published an essential trilogy of photographic manuals: The Camera, The Negative, and The Print. A pioneer and visionary in his field, Adams invented what is known as the zone system. The zone system was a technique offered photographers a better control over finished photographs by enabling them to translate light they see into specific densities on both negatives and paper.
Born in San Francisco, Adams enjoyed an upper-class upbringing. His interest in photography was fueled when as a sick child, his Aunt Mary presented him with a copy of “In the Heart of the Sierras,” a book by George Fiske. So taken was young Adams by the photographs in the book that he persuaded his parents for a vacation in Yosemite National Park. The year was 1916, and this is when Adams was gifted his first camera.
He dropped out of school when he was thirteen. The idea of uniformity in the education system was a hindrance and he decided to educate himself. Although he initially trained himself to be a pianist, the lure of the camera and the love of photography kept him alternating all through his adult life between a photographer and a concert pianist. By age seventeen, Adams became a part of a group called the Sierra Club that was dedicated towards preserving natural resources and wonders. His love of nature and the environment kept him busy at the club and he was a member all through his lifetime. In fact, both Adams and his wife Virginia served as directors of the club. Also an enthusiast mountaineer, Adams loved the outdoors and he made several ascents in the Sierra Nevada.
It was his photographs in the book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, along with his testimony, which in 1940 helped establishing Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks. In 1984, in his honor, The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest was renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness. He also has an 11,760′ peak in the Sierra Nevada named after him. Although he did give up formal education very early in life, Adams received three Guggenheim fellowships during the course of his career. In the year 1966, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And in 1980 he was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor by Jimmy Carter. You can learn more about photography and Ansel Adams and the techniques he used by taking a course in photography.
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