Ansel Adams, the pioneering photographer, was born 119 years ago today.
Adams was a photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West — especially Yosemite National Park.
With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those to whom he taught the system.
Adams primarily used large-format cameras despite their size, weight, setup time and film cost because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images. He founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers, Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston.
Adams's photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters and in books, making his images widely distributed.
Born in the Western Addition of San Francisco to distinctly upper-class parents, Adams was an only child and was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mother's family came from Baltimore and his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business, but squandered his wealth in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada.
The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from the north of Ireland in the early 18th century. His grandfather founded and built a prosperous lumber business, which his father later ran, though his father's natural talents lay more with sciences than with business. Later in life, Adams would condemn that very same industry for cutting down many of the great redwood forests.
Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious... One wonder after another descended upon us... There was light everywhere... A new era began for me."
His father gave him his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, during that stay and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm.“ He returned to Yosemite on his own the following year with better cameras and a tripod.
In the winter, he learned basic darkroom technique working part-time for a San Francisco photo finisher. Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings and went to photography and art exhibits.
With retired geologist and amateur ornithologist, Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank," he explored the High Sierra, in summer and winter, developing the stamina and skill needed to photograph at high elevation and under difficult weather conditions.
His first photographs were published in 1921. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to his family, he expressed his daring to climb to the best view points and brave the worst elements.
At this point, however, Adams was planning a career in music. It took seven more years for Adams to finally concede that at best he might become a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist or a piano teacher.
In the mid-1920s, Adams experimented with soft-focus, etching, Bromoil Process and other techniques of the pictorial photographers, such as Photo-Secession leader, Alfred Stieglitz, who strove to put photography on an equal artistic plane with painting by trying to mimic it.
In 1927, Adams produced his first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, in his new style, which included his famous image — Monolith, the Face of Half Dome — taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter to heighten the tonal contrasts.
On that excursion, he had only one plate left and he "visualized" the effect of the blackened sky before risking the last shot. "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print,” he said.
As he wrote confidently in April, 1927, "My photographs have now reached a stage when they are worthy of the world's critical examination. I have suddenly come upon a new style which I believe will place my work equal to anything of its kind."
Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured and he became more established. In the course of his 60-year career, the 1930s were a particularly productive and experimental time. He expanded his works, focusing on detailed close-ups as well as large forms from mountains to factories.
In New Mexico, he was introduced to notables from Alfred Stieglitz's circle, including painter Georgia O'Keeffe, artist John Marin and photographer Paul Strand, all of whom created famous works during their stays in the Southwest.
Adams's talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him a hit within his enlarging circle of elite artist friends.
Strand especially proved influential, sharing secrets of his technique with Adams, and finally convincing Adams to pursue photography with all his talent and energy.
Following Stieglitz's example, in 1933 Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco which eventually became the Danysh Gallery after Adams's commitments grew too burdensome. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, Making a Photograph, in 1935.
During the 1930s, many photographers, including Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, believed they had a social obligation to reveal the harsh times of the Depression through their art. Mostly resistant to the "art for life's sake" movement, Adams did begin in the 1930s to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation.
In part, he was inspired by the increasing desecration of Yosemite Valley by commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops and automobile traffic. He created a limited-edition book in 1938, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, as part of the Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Sequoia and Kings Canyon as national parks.
This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of the effort, and Congress designated the area as a National Park in 1940. In 1945, Adams was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Adams invited Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers and Minor White to be lead instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde, Benjamen Chinn, Charles Wong, Bill Heick, Ira Latour, C. Cameron Macauley and Gerald Ratto.
In 1952, Adams was one of the founders of the magazine, Aperture, which was intended as a serious journal of photography showcasing its best practitioners and newest innovations.
Adams was elected in 1966 a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1980, Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Adams's photograph, The Tetons and the Snake River, has the distinction of being one of the 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft. His lasting legacy includes helping to elevate photography to an art comparable with painting and music, and equally capable of expressing emotion and beauty.
As he reminded his students, "It is easy to take a photograph, but it is harder to make a masterpiece in photography than in any other art medium."
Adams died on April 22, 1984, in Monterey, California, at the age of 82 from a heart attack.
Here, Ansel Adams is interviewed by Roy Firestone