Please join me in celebrating the birth of one of America’s greatest photographers, Ansel Adams.
Ansel was born on February 20th, 1902 in San Francisco, CA.
Ansel started going to Yosemite in 1916 and joined the Sierra Club in 1919, his photographs started appearing in the clubs bulletin in 1922. While Ansel’s images were on display in the Best’s Studio in Yosemite starting in 1921 it wasn’t until 1928 that Ansel had his first big exhibit in the San Francisco offices of the Sierra Club. It was around this time that Ansel realized he could make a living being a photographer instead of being a concert pianist, which he had been doing the previous 10 years. In 1934 Ansel was elected to the Sierra Club’s board of directors and served on the board for 37 years.
As William Turnage writes in his biography of Ansel Adams:
Adams was an unremitting activist for the cause of wilderness and the environment. Over the years he attended innumerable meetings and wrote thousands of letters in support of his conservation philosophy to newspaper editors, Sierra Club and Wilderness Society colleagues, government bureaucrats, and politicians. However, his great influence came from his photography. His images became the symbols, the veritable icons, of wild America. When people thought about the national parks of the Sierra Club or nature of the environment itself, the often envisioned them in terms of an Ansel Adams photograph. His black-and-white images were not "realistic" documents of nature. Instead, they sought an intensification and purification of the psychological experience of natural beauty. He created a sense of the sublime magnificence of nature that infused the viewer with the emotional equivalent of wilderness, often more powerful than the actual thing.
Ansel Adams made this image in 1938 with an 8" x 10” view camera from the Old Sentinel Bridge near the Yosemite Chapel. Though the old bridge was replaced in 2000, the new Sentinel Bridge remains one the best viewpoints in Yosemite Valley and a popular spot for photographers, in large part because of Adams ' photographs from this location.
Preservation of the wilderness with emphasis on Yosemite National Park along with the rest of the national park system were Ansel’s priority. He lobbied for new parks, the Wilderness Act, protecting Alaska, Big Sur and the Red Woods. He also fought for clean air and water.
Adams was often criticised for not including humans or man made objects in his photographs. Of course this wasn’t true, there are a lot of examples where he included people in his pictures but they are just not the famous iconic images he became famous for.
Ansel Adams made this image with an 8" x 10" view camera sometime before 1959. The specific date is unknown, but astronomers at Texas State University in San Marcos dated a similar image, "Autumn Moon," to 7:03 PM September 15, 1948.
The image captures the moon rising over the Clark Range southeast of Glacier Point. When the moon is full, its light reflects off Yosemite's bare granite walls bathing the south central high country in an ethereal glow that has made nighttime hiking popular in this area of the park.
The moon was a key element in some of Ansel Adams' photographs, notably "Moonrise" made in 1941 at Hernandez , New Mexico . His technical expertise enabled him to make exposures that reveal the detail of the moon's craters and seas.
Ansel Adams son Michael was there when Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico was shot. He talks about it in this video by Marc Silber.
Ansel Adams made this image with a 5" x 7" view camera in 1938, the year he trekked through the high sierra with Edward Weston. Depending upon the year, dogwoods typically peak during April or May in Yosemite , evoking bursts of starlight against the bare forest backdrop. This dramatic contrast prompted Adams to compose one of his only still-life images. To capture the 12 blossoms in this spectacular spray of dogwoods, he placed them atop a nearby rock covered with pine needles and lichen.
The Sierra Club published "Dogwood Blossoms" in 1960 after Ansel Adams selected it, along with 15 other images, for inclusion in "Portfolio III, Yosemite Valley ." Later, Adams selected it for his Museum Set Collection, a retrospective portfolio of what he considered his strongest work. The image has been published in Classic Images , the book based on the Museum Set, Yosemite and the Range of Light (out of print) , Yosemite, The Portfolios of Ansel Adams, Yosemite and the High Sierra, and Ansel Adams Monograph (out of print)
Adams was in Alaska on a Guggenheim Fellowship trip and had been taken from McKinley station to the ranger cabin at Wonder Lake by the National Parks service. The photograph was taken at 1.30 in the morning (the sun having set only 2 hours previously at 11.30 - such is the day length in the Arctic in summer) on one of the rare cloudless days during a weeks stay at the ranger station.
In 1979, I assisted Ansel Adams while he took the official portrait of President Jimmy Carter. Ansel used the 55-minute session as an opportunity to present information directly to the president about the importance of preserving the Alaskan wilderness. It was no coincidence that at the conclusion of this portrait session, Ansel presented the president and first lady with a beautiful print of Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake, Alaska. Not long thereafter, President Carter signed legislation helping to protect the Alaskan wilderness.
--John Sexton, photographer
I remember the day I heard Ansel Adams had died, ironically I was teaching high school photography. He died on Sunday, April 22nd, 1984 and I got the word the next day in class.
To help celebrate I encourage you to post your favorite Adams picture in the comments.
Happy Sunday everyone!
Sources:
Ansel Adams, Photographer - William Turnage
Ansel Adams Wikipedia
A visit to Ansel Adams’ Home - Marc Silber Show