ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | COLLECTION | PHOTOGRAPHY

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams' photographs of the American western landscape have earned him a place as perhaps the most recognizable photographer of the 20th century. Often employing an 8” x 10” negative format with a highly controlled approach to printing, Adams' photographs seem to create a singular reality, one that embodies a vision that believed in the primacy of the natural world and the power that underlies it.

He grew up in Golden Gate, California. A shy and solitary boy, he found an early love of nature and the piano, both of which were inform his later career. He began by teaching himself the piano and later taking lessons. Here he developed discipline and an artistic vision.

He began taking photographs around 1916 while intending to become a professional pianist. In 1919, he joined the Sierra Club and spent his first summer he in Yosemite Valley as keeper of their lodge. The Sierra Club also provided his first major outlet for the distribution of his photographs through their 1922 bulletin and his first one-man show at their San Francisco headquarters in 1928. His photographic style during this period was picaresque.

Adams formed the group f/64 with photographers Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston in 1927. The philosophy behind f/64 exemplified a way of working that strove toward the perfect realization of photographic vision through technically flawless prints.

In 1930, his style shifted as he was introduced to influential photographer Paul Strand. He decided he needed to take a straight forward approach to photograph, abandoned interpretation in his photographic process and focused on nature as nature presented itself. Towards this end, he developed the “zone system,” a codification of his approach to photographic exposure, development and printing. Adams became reknown for his technical mastery and the obsessive spirit with which he approached his art.

He also left a legacy as one of the most outspoken conservationists in the United States. But for all the letters to government officials and politicians, he photographs of the American wilderness have had the most lasting impact on its preservation.