Ansel Adams is a name that is known to art photography enthusiasts around the world. A California photographer, almost the same age as the century, born in 1902 and having lived a long life full of creativity, Adams captured everything that caught his eye on tape.
Portraits of contemporaries and grandiose architectural structures, the frozen city landscapes of industrial America and, of course, wildlife. It was landscape photographs, taken almost always in monochrom, that allowed us to go down in the history of the name Ansel Adams.
The biography of the photographer originates in California, where at the beginning of the 20th century he was born into a contented, wealthy family that had already left hope for the appearance of an heir. Parents, the heirs of the timber business, which was started by Ansel’s great-grandfather, didn’t look for souls in his son, but brought him up modestly, with love for the world and his native nature.
early years
Being a late and beloved child, the future genius of photography grew painful, which made him incapable of sporting achievements and, rarely attending school, made friends with difficulty, preferring loneliness to them. At the age of 4, he broke his nose and, starting to feel shy of his face, became even more shy. Little Ancel did not make life easier and the inability to learn to read and write well due to dyslexia.
In the end, his father and mother decided to teach him at home and took him out of school, which affected his whole future life, inextricably linked with the majestic nature of America. The father walked with the child for a long time, instilling in him a love for animals, insects and plants.
First steps in the profession
When the boy was 14 years old, the family took him to Yosemite National Park. He took a camera with him for a walk, and after that he began to get involved in filming seriously, visiting exhibitions, writing magazines and joining a club of photography enthusiasts. This moment can be considered the beginning of his life as a photographer. Ansel was so impressed by the charm of nature that every year he went to the park every year with a camera and a tripod, taking more and more pictures.
A year before adulthood, Ansel Adams became a member of the Sierra Club, whose activity was to protect natural monuments and fight for the preservation of the environment. The club will become his home for many years. Within its walls, he will find like-minded people and will meet his future wife Virginia, will participate in the conquest of the Sierra Nevada mountains , and later he will become a director.
Creative throwing and first successes
The creative nature of the growing young man could not stop at one thing, and soon he began to study music, learning to play the piano and meeting many artists. Despite the new hobby, Ansel did not forget about photography: in the cold season he devoted himself entirely to music, and spent three summer months in photo trips. His works began to be published, but the dream of a musician career did not leave Ansel.
At 25, Ansel Adams created his first portfolio, which he was rightly proud of and which gained deserved success. He was valued at $ 4,000. Businessmen, rich and celebrities have become regular customers of his pictures. He developed as a photographer, experimented with various artistic styles, focused on realism, which became the hallmark of his work.
Having married, Ansel and his wife created a gallery in her father’s studio, which will become famous in the world. Then he realized that he would no longer be a great musician, and devoted himself completely to photography, spending more and more time behind the lens, and soon held his first exhibition.
Conservationist and master of photography
Ansel Adams devoted three quarters of his life to photography. Before he was 40 years old, he began to be respected by well-known and eminent colleagues, and also created his famous “Zone Theory”, in which he talked about how to reproduce tones in a monochrome photograph. Theory forever captured his name: today, professional photographers use it to calculate exposure.
A consultant to Polariod and Hasselband, the author of dozens of books on photography, a member of the Academy of Sciences of America, who founded the first in the United States Department of the Art of Photography and the journal Apertura, twice a Guggenheim Foundation scholar, in whose honor one of the mountains in Sierra Nevada was named - All this is Ansel Adams.
The quotes of the master, who created more than ten thousand photographs, distinguished by impeccable technique and an unforgettable composition, help to understand what this extraordinary person was who devoted himself to creativity and service to nature.
The words of a genius about the work of a lifetime
“Sometimes I find myself in such beautiful places where God is just waiting for me to press the camera shutter.”
“There are always two in any photo - this is the viewer and the photographer.”
"This photograph does not require explanation and it does not need to be expressed in words."
"There are no shooting rules - there are only good shots."