Ansel Adams

by Dr. Lori Verderame

Ansel Adams

For many of us, the history of art photography in America is synonymous with the names Ansel Adams, Alfred Steiglitz, and Eliot Porter. However, Ansel Adams helped to establish photography among the fine arts.

Adams was born in 1902 in San Francisco, lived through the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as a child, and went on to be an esteemed photographer and land preservationist. The quintessential photographer of the American southwest, Ansel Adams’ black and white photographs remain some of the most breathtaking images in the history of 20^th Century landscape photography.

Adams’ first portfolio of photographs was entitled Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. This portfolio included one of the most important photographs of Adams’ career called Monolith, the Face of Half Dome.

Fellow Artists

Adams worked alongside of Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Georgia O’Keeffe in New Mexico. He became interested in topics relating to the protection of the wilderness including Yosemite national park and land preservation issues. He pictured World War II imagery and considered the landscape of the American southwest as a favorite subject.

In the 1970s, Adams’ large format and iconic photographs were all the rage with collectors. His works were featured in a retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 1974.  Ansel Adams died at age 82.

Get an online appraisal of your Ansel Adams work from Dr. Lori.