Photography: Ansel adams

1. Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams was Born on February
20 1902 and past away on April 22
1984. He was an American
photographer who was best known
for his landscapes. Ansel was an
only child and when he was 12
years old his father decided to pull
him out of school after he kept
getting dismissed from several
private schools for his ‘Restlessness
and inattentiveness’. Also at the
age of 12 he taught himself piano.

2. Background
Adams, when very young, spent part of
each day studying his exhibits as his father
insisted that it was part of his education.
He gave up music for his photography
however, he found the music gave him
discipline, structure and substance. His
most famous photographs was ‘Moon and
Half Dome’, ‘Yosemite National Park’ and
‘California’.
He contracted his first portfolio in 1927
which became a success and earned him
$3,900. He joined a club which was
devoted to fine art, this club helped him
learn a lot about printing techniques.
Ansel Adams work became more
established between 1929-1942 due to his
work maturing.
Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier
National Park - 1942

3. Imagery
Before Ansel Adams romantic Landscape photographers Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran
photographed Yosemite and Grand Canyon but it was Ansel’s Black and White images that showed what
many of the National Parks were like before Tourism came about.
Ansel Adams is best known in photography as a landscape photographer. Ansel used his work to promote
many of the goals of the Sierra club .
The Tetons and the Snake River
1942

4. Quote
‘We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the
cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the
depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of
the noble forests. And we know that such
catastrophes shrivel the spirit of the people....
The wilderness is pushed back, man is
everywhere. Solitude, so vital to the individual
man, is almost nowhere’.
Baton Practice at the Manzanar War Relocation centre
1943

5. Bibliography
•http://www.anseladams.com
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams
Church, Taos Pueblo 1942