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Ansel Adams was a master photographer and ardent
conservationist. He is best known for his monochrome photographs of
landscapes, although he spent much of his career in commercial
photography. He was born on 20 February 1902 in San Francisco,
California, near the Golden Gate Bridge. Although his parents, Charles
Hitchcock and Olive Bray Adams sent him to good schools, Adams was not
academic, preferring to explore the outdoors. He was an accomplished
pianist – initially self-taught – and had intended to make music his
career. However, he was also interested in photography and after taking
photographs during a trip to Yosemite National Park in 1916, he changed
direction. He found a job as a photographic technician with a commercial
photographer and thus built up his knowledge of photography. He joined
the Sierra Club, which was devoted to conservation of the Sierra Nevada
wilderness, and his photographs and articles were printed in its
official magazine.
Following further
publications of his work in limited-edition collections, Ansel Adams decided
to take up photography professionally and went on to open the Ansel Adams
Gallery for the Arts. He also taught photography and published a wide range
of works on its craft. In 1937, Adams moved to Yosemite Valley to be close
to his favourite subject and published numerous volumes of his work carried
out there. Ansel Adams died on 22 April 1984, leaving not only an extensive
collection of superb images but also inspiring photographers throughout the
world.
You get a sense of the man and his philosophy from his quote: “A great
photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense,
about what is being photographed.”
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