Photographer Profile of Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams breakthrough to become a photographer began from his first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. Adams primarily used large format film (8x10)” view camera. He developed each negative individually according to the Zone System.

This portfolio included 18 silver gelatin photographic prints, which he captured in his month-long High Trips in the Sierra. When he went there he took pictures that captured the vast landscapes of the regions best known features. He took photos of King’s River Canyon, Muir Gorge, The Pinnacles at the Headwaters of King’s River, Mount Brewer, The Black Kaweah, Mount Ritter, The Minarets, the area around South Fork of the San Joaquin, and Evolution Valley. Even know he only made $3900 on the portfolio, it was a success and lead to a number of commercial assignments. Adams still continued to improve his work and reputation, having his first one man exhibit in 1928 at the Sierra Club’s San Francisco Headquarters.

He traveled to Mexico in the spring of 1929 and stayed there for two months. While he was there he took pictures that were published in a book called Taos Pueblo, which text was written by writer Mary Hunter Austin. It depicted his transition from pictorial style to his sharped focused images. A couple years later in 1931 he had his first own solo exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. His work earned him incredible reviews from the Washington post. Because of the reviews he had a group show with Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Henry Weston at the M. H. de Young Museum, which created Group f/64.

Two Years later in his career Adams opened his first Gallery named after himself. While running the studio he travel to the Sierra Nevada, taking many photos. During that time he took a photo Clearing Winter Storm because one of his most notable works every. A few years later he had a very successful show at a American Place Gallery in New York where he earned praise for his works on Sierra Nevada.

Adams then began to get more involved in conservation of wilderness and in 1938 came out with a limited edition book titled Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail. The John Muir Trail runs 220 miles in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Two years later in 1940 put together the largest photography show in the west. It was names A Pageant of Photography were seen by millions of photography lovers. The year after he ended opening up brcoming a teacher at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. When the USA joined the seond World War, President Roosevelt ordered for the relocation of more than a thousand people of Japanese ancestry in Manzanar Relocation Center. Adams went and visited the camp and took photos of the life at the camp. Shocked by the condition at the camp Adams published Born Free and Equal.

The book created controversy but from this Adams ended up taking up photographic assignments for the military. Four years later Adams ended up forming his first fine photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute. The year after he received Guggenheim fellowship to photograph every National Park in USA. In 1952 he was a cofounder on the Aperture Magazine, and created Adams in contributed to magazines on a regular basis. From this he continued to accept commercial assignments. Two eyars later he ended up collaborating with Nancy Newhall an American photography critic. He ended up publishing works on Mission San Xavier del Bac in a book. The following year Adams ended up having a workshop which ended up turning into an actual evnt. I taught thousands of aspirants until 1981.

In Adams later life in the 1960s his appreciation of photography as a art form had expanded to the point where they where being shown in large galleries and museums. In 1974 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted a retrospective exhibit. During the 1970s, Adams spent most of his time printing negatives in order to satisfy the demand for his works. Adams ended up having a heart attack and was confined to a bed for a month due to a surgery to remove cancer in September of 1983. He ended up deing on April 22, 1984 at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California at the age of 82.

I am drawn to Ansel Adams because of his captivating black and white photographs of the American West. I love how beautiful the photos are even in black and white and show you just how beautiful the earth we live in is. I was also drawn to the fact in him taking pictures of National Parks such as Yosemite which he used his work to help promote conservation of the wilderness areas. Adams joined the Sierra Club and worked as a caretaker in Yosemite Valley. While working there he spent time hiking, exploring and taking many different photos. Learning about Ansel Adams and his commitment to showing the true beauty of Americas West in black and white proved to me that there is so much beauty in black and white. I find pictures that are developed in black and white so intriguing because of the story they tell by themselves. Learning about Ansel Adams now makes me enjoy he beauty in vast landscapes, and I hope one day that I will be able to go to the places that Adams went too.