ANSEL EASTON ADAMS

A Biography of important life achievements and works.By

Robert DeValentine

The photograph you are looking at was photographed by Ansel Adams.Titled: Peak East of Moose Pass (Sierra Club 1928 High Trip Photo Album,

sierraclub.org)

(Sierra Club 1928 High Trip Photo Album, sierraclub.org)

ANSEL ADAMS

• Ansel Adams was a photographer and environmentalist.

• Adams lived from 1902-1984.

• He practiced Straight Photography.

• As an avid Conservationist Adams used his photography to help preserve the wilderness (American Experience, pbs.org).

• Ansel also photographed Japanese internment camps during World War 2.

ADAMS’S LIFE: BIRTH-CHILDHOOD• On February 20, 1902 Ansel Easton Adams was born.

• His mother was Olive Bray Adams and father was Charles Hitchcock Adams.

• His father had inherited a Lumber business owned by his family and failed in making it lucrative as quoted by PBS’s American Experience, ”A man of scrupulous integrity, he could not compete in the corrupt business climate of his day.” (American Experience, pbs.org)

• Ansel broke his nose in 1906 when he was thrown to the ground marking and separating him for the rest of his life (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

• Through self effort Adams Learned to play the piano and read music at the age of twelve this would become his profession in 1920 bringing “. . . substance, discipline, and structure to his frustrating and erratic youth.”(American Experience, pbs.org)

(American Experience, pbs.org)

ADAM’S LIFE: YOUTH

• Due to personality and possibly being hdd and or dyslexic Adam had a hard time fitting in at school and was removed at the age of twelve (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

• When Adams was 14 his parents gave him his first Camera for their trip to Yosemite. A place where Adam’s would “time there every year from 1916 until his death.”(Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org)

(American Experience, pbs.org)

(Photographic, Photographiccage.com)

YOUNG ADULTHOOD

• At the age of 17 Adams joined the sierra club (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

• His first photographs to be published were in the Sierra club’s 1922 bulletin.

• In 1927 Adams made his first fully visualized photograph Monolith, the Face of Half Dome (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

• This photograph is where Adams first created his “unique photographic style.”(American Experience, pbs.org)

• In 1927 Albert M. Bender offered to publish Ansel’s first portfolio Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

• In 1928 Ansel Easton Adams Married his wife Virginia Best.

LIFE

Adams was active in the photographic arts until his death in 1984. During his life he was part of the group f/64, had many museum and gallery shows, and a world famous photographer whose name was synonymous with the wilderness. (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org)

INFLUENCES• Ansel Adams was greatly influenced by the natural beauty of the

dunes that surrounded his house as a child. (American Experience, pbs.org)

• Adams also was greatly influenced by his father who was very supportive as quoted by Adams. “I trace who I am and the direction of my development to those years of growing up in our house by the dunes, propelled especially by an internal spark tenderly kept alive and glowing by my father.” (American Experience, pbs.org)

• In the Panama Pacific exposition of 1915 greatly influenced the young Adams as quoted by William Turnage, “Ansel went every single day, and he learned more there than he ever could have in a year at school.“(American Experience, pbs.org)

• Adams was greatly influenced by the national parks; in particular Yosemite.(American Experience, pbs.org)

• Music also played a vital role in giving Ansel his sense of composition.

INFLUENCES: CONTINUED

• Albert Bender was a publisher for Adams; who played a key role in getting him to become a well known photographer (American Experience, pbs.org).

• Alfred Stieglitz an influential curator and photographer had high regards for Ansel’s photographs and gave Adams a one-person exhibit in his gallery An American Place in November of 1936 (American Experience, pbs.org).

• Adams was also friends with Mary Austin and Edward Weston and for a time was part of the legendary group f/64 (Ansel Adams Biography, sierraclub.org).

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Ansel Easton Adams had achieved may feats throughout his life including :

• Heightened environmental awareness,

• The creation symbols of the American Wilderness

• Fame as perhaps one of the world’s greatest landscape photographers.

• Mastery of the technical elements.

• Strong avocation for straight photography and showing the real world through photographs.

ANSEL’S WORKSMonolith, the Face of Half Dome

1927

(Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, Altervista.org)

Moon and Half Dome1960

(Moon and Half Dome by Ansel Adams, Anseladams.com)

Moon and Half Dome Tetons and the Snake River

1942(Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams, Anseladams.com)

Works Cited

"American Experience . Ansel Adams | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 29 Nov. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ansel/>.

"American Experience . Ansel Adams . People: Ansel Adams | PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 04

Dec. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/ansel/peopleevents/p_aadams.html>.

"Ansel (Easton) Adams Biography." Biography.com. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://www.biography.com/articles/Ansel-Easton-Adams-9175697>.

"Ansel Adams Biography." Sierraclub.org. Sierra Club. Web. 04 Dec. 2010. <http://www.anseladams.com/anseladams_biography_s/51.htm>.

"Group F/64 | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

York: Metmuseum.org. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/f64/hd_f64.htm>.

"Moon and Half Dome by Ansel Adams." The Ansel Adams Gallery. Web. 06 Dec. 2010.

<http://www.anseladams.com/Moon_and_Half_Dome_p/5010117-u.htm>.

"Tetons and the Snake River by Ansel Adams." The Ansel Adams Gallery. Web. 06 Dec. 2010.

<http://www.anseladams.com/Tetons_and_the_Snake_River_p/1701186102.htm>.

"Monolith, The Face of Half Dome." Altervista.org. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. < http://fotografartebb.altervista.org/?attachment_id=2221>.

"Photographic @ge - Collectors Corner - Online Photography Magazine - Reviews, Columns & Galleries." Photographic @ge - Online

Photography Magazine - Reviews, Columns & Galleries. Web. 05 Dec. 2010.

<http://photographicage.com/content/collectors/collectors_insert.htm>.

"Sierra Club 1928 High Trip Photo Album." Sierraclub.org. Sierra Club. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <

http://www.sierraclub.org/history/ansel-adams/slideshow/aa_album_35.jpg>.