Ansel Adams February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984

Early Life Born in San Francisco His paternal grandfather founded a prosperous lumber business, which his father later ran Ansel Adams later hated the industry because of the destruction of redwood forests Ansel and his father shared the hobby of amateur Astronomy

About American photographer and environmentalist He is best known for his black and white landscape photographs of the American West and Yosemite Park

Interest in Photography First visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 –“A new era began for me.” Joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to protecting the wild Founded the f/64 Group “Monolith, The Face of Half Dome”, 1927

Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, 1927

Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, 1940 Developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust contrast Used large-format cameras for high resolution and sharpness

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico New Mexico, 1941 One of his most famous Adams’ description of how it was made added to the fame of the photograph

Awards and Honors Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, 1946 Sierra Club Join Muir Award, 1963 Conservation Service Award, 1968 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1980 Hasselblad Award, 1981

Exhibitions Smithsonian Institution Stieglitz Gallery Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art Knoxville Museum of Art Hong Kong Museum Napa’s Mumm Winery for Changing Earth Norton Art Gallery Phoenix Art Museum Cincinnati Art Museum Etc, etc, etc…….

Some Quotes… “You don’t wait, you stumble upon “Found Objects” “You have to be there on the right day and at the right time” “Colored prints remind me of a piano that is a little out of tune…I can sometimes hear music in my photographs in a structural sense” “I like to use black and white photographs because it gives me more control and I can see the image more clearly”