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Table of Contents
American photographer Ansel Adams is widely regarded as the 20th century’s greatest landscape photographer. A champion of conservation throughout his career, his innovative techniques helped elevate landscape photography, influencing contemporary image technology.
See the fact file below for more information on Ansel Adams, or you can download our 22-page Ansel Adams worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
EARLY LIFE OF ANSEL ADAMS
- Ansel Adams, the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray, was born in San Francisco’s Fillmore neighborhood on February 20, 1902. He was given the name Ansel Easton in honor of his uncle.
- Adams was a hyperactive child who was prone to illness and hypochondria. He had few acquaintances, but his family’s house and the area around it on the heights overlooking the Golden Gate supplied him with enough childhood activities. Although he lacked enthusiasm for games and sports, he was always drawn to the beauty of nature.
- In his younger years, he showed little interest in school, so his parents decided to homeschool him. However, his great interest in playing piano gave him opportunities to be taught by respected piano teachers, including avant-garde composer Henry Cowell.
- Adams received his first camera in 1916, which proved him to be a talented photographer. His first visit to Yosemite Park cemented his pursuit of photography. In the 1930s, he decided to devote his career to photography.
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY
- He met American photographer Paul Strand in 1930, who showed him the negatives he was currently producing in New Mexico.
- Adams was deeply moved by the simplicity of the photographs, as well as by their vibrant, rich tones, which stood in stark contrast to the soft-focus pictorialism that is still popular among modern photographers.
- In 1931, Adams displayed 60 prints from the High Sierra and the Canadian Rockies in his first solo museum exhibition, “Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams,” held at the Smithsonian Institution and praised by The Washington Post.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CAREER
- By 1935, Adams had achieved fame among photographers, thanks in large part to a number of essays he had written for magazines like Camera Craft and other widely read publications.
- The Studio Publications of London commissioned Adams to create Making a Photograph, a guidebook to photography techniques illustrated with his own photographs.
- Adams started using his images to advance the cause of wilderness preservation in the 1930s. He was motivated in part by the commercial development that was encroaching on Yosemite Valley, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, stores, and traffic.
- As part of the Sierra Club’s attempts to gain the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park, he wrote a new book Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, in 1938. Two years later, Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park.
- One of Ansel Adams’ most well-known images of the Sierra Nevada, Clearing Winter Storm, which was created in 1935, showed the beauty of Yosemite Valley.
- He established his career in the 1940s. First, Adams produced “A Pageant of Photography, which attracted millions of visitors and was the biggest and most significant photography exhibition in the West to date.
- A champion of conservation throughout his career, Adams was also instrumental in creating the Museum of Modern Art’s photography division.
- He established the first academic department to teach professional photography in 1946 at the California School of Fine Arts, which is now the San Francisco Art Institute.
- Additionally, he restored the concept of the original (chemical) photographic print as an item that might be purchased as a work of art. In 1948, he offered 12 original prints from his Portfolio I for $100. Adams created seven of these portfolios, the final one in 1976.
- Adams was one of the founders of the publication Aperture, created in 1952 as a professional journal of photography showcasing its top practitioners and most recent advances. He also provided content for the photo-rich travel magazine Arizona Highways.
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE
- The compositions of Adams are precise. He often only took one image, maybe two, for insurance, but frequently the two were similar as he thought of placement.
- Such was his level of accuracy and assurance in his abilities. As a photographer, he had to make snap judgments and was accustomed to the idea of frozen time.
- To express scale, he frequently positioned the horizon line high in the frame. His artwork captures the feel and scope of those alpine settings.
- His landscapes frequently have a pronounced “S” curve as a guiding line that conveys motion. A river is a common means used by Ansel Adams to create this effect.
- Adams’ photographs feature subjects that appear to be bursting out of the frame. Due to his precise cropping and close framing, his subjects appeared to loom over the edges of the images.
- He employed parallel lines to provide depth to the composition or interconnecting lines to frame a subject.
- The unusual textures of the natural world were an essential compositional tool in Adams’ photography, whether on the surface of huge mountains or in the fine details on a tiny twig.
- He captured the textures of wood, stone, snow, and various other materials, emphasizing detail to create the appearance of substance and frequently enlarging the scale of his images.
- Adams preferred monochromatic pictures. Shadows became more dramatic in black and white because subtlety was possible. He altered reality and brought the audience closer to the realm of fantasy by shooting in black and white.
- Adams’ photos have a compelling forcefulness thanks to his instinctive use of tonal balance and contrast.
- There were periods of intense darkness that either contrasted with or complemented shining expanses of light. His photographs are balanced as they cover the entire tonal spectrum from white to black.
LATER LIFE
- Adams’ photographic production ceased in the 1960s. At the time, he was older and in worse health.
- Adams published negatives from his collection in the 1970s, mostly to meet the demand of art institutions that had just set up photographic departments.
- President Jimmy Carter awarded Adams the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980, recognizing his decades of environmental activism and photography.
- He died from cardiovascular disease on April 22, 1984, at 82.
Ansel Adams Worksheets
This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about Ansel Adams across 22 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams is widely regarded as the 20th century’s greatest landscape photographer.
Complete List of Included Worksheets
Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.
- Ansel Adams Facts
- Ansel’s Photography
- Story in Pictures
- Picture Poem
- Quick Photography
- Black and White Landscape
- Photographic Quotes
- One Take, Two Colors
- Mono or Hues?
- Colors have Different Stories
- Acrostic Pictures
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Ansel Adams?
Ansel Adams was a renowned American photographer and environmentalist who is widely considered to be one of the most important and influential photographers of the 20th century.
What is Ansel Adams known for?
Ansel Adams is best known for his iconic black-and-white photographs of the American West, particularly his images of Yosemite National Park. His photographs are known for their exquisite tonal range and sharp focus, and they capture the beauty and majesty of the natural world in a way that is both awe-inspiring and deeply moving.
What was Ansel Adams’ photographic style?
Ansel Adams’ photographic style was characterized by his use of large-format cameras, careful composition, and precise control over the exposure and development of his images. He was a master of the “zone system,” a technique for achieving optimal tonal range and contrast in black-and-white photography.
How did Ansel Adams contribute to the environmental movement?
Ansel Adams was a passionate environmentalist who used his photography to raise awareness about the importance of preserving America’s natural landscapes. He co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892, and he was instrumental in lobbying for the creation of several national parks and wilderness areas.
What is Ansel Adams’ legacy?
Ansel Adams’ legacy is that of a pioneering artist and environmentalist whose work continues to inspire and influence photographers and nature lovers around the world. His photographs are not only beautiful works of art but also important documents of the American West, and his advocacy for environmental conservation has helped to shape public policy and promote greater awareness of our planet’s natural beauty and fragility.
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