ANSEL

ADAMS
1902-1984
His love of the natural world began
early and became the most potent
influence on his art.
At the age of
12, Ansel
learned to
play the piano
and later
worked as a
concert
pianist.
His love of
music
influenced his
art
throughout
his life.
He visited
Yosemite
National Park at
the age of 14 and
was immediately
taken by the
beautiful natural
landscape.
As an adult he
returned there
almost every year
to photograph the
National Park.
At the age of 25,
he began taking
photographs
with his new
camera and
quickly became
a famous
photographer.

He realized that
he could capture
the emotion,
spirituality, and
wonder of nature
with his camera.
By the 1940's, his
landscape
photography work
was well known. He
wrote a series of
textbooks on
photography that are
still used today.
In the
1970's, he
traveled
through
Arizona
and fell in
love with
the
landscape.
Many of his
later
photo-grap
hs were
taken of
Arizona
scenes.
In 1980 Adams
received the
Presidential
Medal of Freedom
for his efforts to
preserve this
country's wild
and scenic areas.
 More than any other influential
American of his epoch, Adams
believed in both the possibility
and the probability of humankind
living in harmony and balance
with its environment.
He was instrumental in
founding several photographic
organizations and helped to
establish photography as a
respected art form. He died in
1984.